Exploring the impact of gut microbiota on abdominal aortic aneurysm risk through a bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is associated with alterations in the composition of the gut microbiota; however, the precise causal relationship remains unclear. Elucidating this complex interplay could provide new insights into the pathogenesis of AAA. METHODS: A bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis was conducted using genome-wide association study summary data on the gut microbiota (n = 18,340) and AAA (n = 353,087). A total of 196 gut microbial taxa across taxonomic levels were examined for their potential causal effects on AAA risk. Conversely, the effect of AAA on these microbial taxa was also analyzed. RESULTS: Nine microbial taxa were identified as having a causal influence on AAA risk. Specifically, increased risk were associated with genus Bilophila (odds ratio [OR], 1.359; P = .0119), genus Catenibacterium (OR, 1.348; P = .0058), genus family XIII AD3011 group (OR, 1.507; P = .004), genus Oxalobacter (OR, 1.157; P = .0449), and genus Prevotella 7 (OR, 1.194; P = .0306), whereas decreased risks were linked to class Lentisphaeria (OR, 0.829; P = .0361), order Victivallales (OR, 0.829; P = .0361), family Victivallaceae (OR, 0.814; P = .0057), and genus Anaerotruncus (OR, 0.773; P = .0497). Furthermore, AAA was found to influence the abundance of 14 microbial taxa across various taxonomic levels. Notably, bidirectional associations were observed with the class Lentisphaeria and the order Victivallales. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides novel evidence for a reciprocal causal relationship between gut microbiota and AAA risk, thereby offering new insights into the pathogenesis of AAA. These findings also suggest promising avenues for microbiome-based therapeutic interventions.

Effects of inflammation, childhood adversity, and psychiatric symptoms on brain morphometrical phenotypes in bipolar II depression.

BACKGROUND: The neuroanatomical alteration in bipolar II depression (BDII-D) and its associations with inflammation, childhood adversity, and psychiatric symptoms are currently unclear. We hypothesize that neuroanatomical deficits will be related to higher inflammation, greater childhood adversity, and worse psychiatric symptoms in BDII-D. METHODS: Voxel- and surface-based morphometry was performed using the CAT toolbox in 150 BDII-D patients and 155 healthy controls (HCs). Partial Pearson correlations followed by multiple comparison correction was used to indicate significant relationships between neuroanatomy and inflammation, childhood adversity, and psychiatric symptoms. RESULTS: Compared with HCs, the BDII-D group demonstrated significantly smaller gray matter volumes (GMVs) in frontostriatal and fronto-cerebellar area, insula, rectus, and temporal gyrus, while significantly thinner cortices were found in frontal and temporal areas. In BDII-D, smaller GMV in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) was correlated with greater sexual abuse (r = -0.348, q < 0.001) while larger GMV in the right orbital MFG was correlated with greater physical neglect (r = 0.254, q = 0.03). Higher WBC count (r = -0.227, q = 0.015) and IL-6 levels (r = -0.266, q = 0.015) was associated with smaller GMVs in fronto-cerebellar area in BDII-D. Greater positive symptoms was correlated with larger GMVs of the left middle temporal pole (r = 0.245, q = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Neuroanatomical alterations in frontostriatal and fronto-cerebellar area, insula, rectus, temporal gyrus volumes, and frontal-temporal thickness may reflect a core pathophysiological mechanism of BDII-D, which are related to inflammation, trauma, and psychiatric symptoms in BDII-D.

Interleukin-1ß moderates the relationships between middle frontal-mACC/insular connectivity and depressive symptoms in bipolar II depression.

The functional alterations of the brain in bipolar II depression (BDII-D) and their clinical and inflammatory associations are understudied. We aim to investigate the functional brain alterations in BDII-D and their relationships with inflammation, childhood adversity, and psychiatric symptoms, and to examine the moderating effects among these factors. Using z-normalized amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (zALFF), we assessed the whole-brain resting-state functional activity between 147 BDII-D individuals and 150 healthy controls (HCs). Differential ALFF regions were selected as seeds for functional connectivity analysis to observe brain connectivity alterations resulting from abnormal regional activity. Four inflammatory cytokines including interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1ß, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and C-reactive protein (CRP) and five clinical scales including Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) were tested and assessed in BDII-D. Partial correlations with multiple comparison corrections identified relationships between brain function and inflammation, childhood adversity, and psychiatric symptoms. Moderation analysis was conducted based on correlation results and previous findings. Compared to HCs, BDII-D individuals displayed significantly lower zALFF in the superior and middle frontal gyri (SFG and MFG) and insula, but higher zALFF in the occipital-temporal area. Only the MFG and insula-related connectivity exhibited significant differences between groups. Within BDII-D, lower right insula zALFF value correlated with higher IL-6, CRP, and emotional adversity scores, while lower right MFG zALFF was related to higher CRP and physical abuse scores. Higher right MFG-mid-anterior cingulate cortex (mACC) connectivity was associated with higher IL-1ß. Moreover, IL-1ß moderated associations between higher right MFG-mACC/insula connectivity and greater depressive symptoms. This study reveals that abnormal functional alterations in the right MFG and right insula were associated with elevated inflammation, childhood adversity, and depressive symptoms in BDII-D. IL-1ß may moderate the relationship between MFG-related connectivity and depressive symptoms.

Attention network training promotes selective attention of children with low socioeconomic status.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the difference of selective attention efficiency between children with low and high socioeconomic status (SES) and the promotional effect of attention network training (an attention network test was used as the training task) on selective attention in children with the low SES. A total of 139 10- to 12-year-old children participated in two experiments (71 in Experiment 1 and 68 in Experiment 2). The results suggest that selective attention and switch ability of children with high SES are better than those of children with low SES. After attention network training, selective attention, switch ability, and working memory of low-SES children improved significantly. The findings provide evidence that attention network training could enhance selective attention in low-SES children and that the beneficial training effect could also transfer to switch ability and working memory. The research may provide a promising method to compensate cognitive delay of low-SES children.

The effect of retirement on physical and mental health in China: a nonparametric fuzzy regression discontinuity study.

BACKGROUND: With the rapid aging of the domestic population, China has a strong incentive to increase the statutory retirement age. How retirement affects the health of the elderly is crucial to this policymaking. The health consequences of retirement have been debated greatly. This study aims to investigate the effects of retirement on physical and mental health among Chinese elderly people. METHODS: The data we use in this study comes from four waves (2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018) of the Harmonized China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (Harmonized CHARLS), a prospective cohort. We use the nonparametric fuzzy regression discontinuity design to estimate the effects of retirement on physical and mental health. We test the robustness of our results with respect to different bandwidths, kernel functions, and polynomial orders. We also explore the heterogeneity across gender and education. RESULTS: Results show that retirement has an insignificant effect on a series of physical and mental health outcomes, with and without adjusting several sociodemographic variables. Heterogeneity exists regarding gender and education. Although stratified analyses indicate that the transition from working to retirement leaves minimal effects on males and females, the effects go in the opposite direction. This finding holds for low-educated and high-educated groups for health outcomes including depression and cognitive function. Most of the results are stable with respect to different bandwidths, kernel functions, and polynomial orders. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that it is possible to delay the statutory retirement age in China as retirement has insignificant effects on physical and mental health. However, further research is needed to assess the long-term effect of retirement on health.

Association between adverse childhood experiences and sleep quality, emotional and behavioral problems and academic achievement of children and adolescents.

The impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on adult health has been extensively examined, but the association between ACEs and sleep, emotion, behavior and academic outcomes of children and adolescents is not well known. A total of 6363 primary and middle school students were included to examine the effect of ACEs on sleep quality, emotional and behavioral problems and academic achievement and further explore the mediation role of sleep quality and emotional and behavioral problems. Children and adolescents with ACE exposure had 1.37 times risk of poor sleep quality (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.37, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.21-1.55), 1.91 times risk of emotional and behavioral problems (adjusted OR = 1.91, 95%CI: 1.69-2.15) and 1.21 times risk of self-reported lower academic achievement (adjusted OR = 1.21, 95%CI: 1.08-1.36). Most types of ACEs were significantly associated with poor sleep quality, emotional and behavioral problems and lower academic achievement. There were dose-response relationships between cumulative ACE exposure and risk of poor sleep quality, emotional and behavioral problems, and lower academic achievement. Sleep quality and emotional and behavioral performance mediated 45.9% of the effect of ACEs exposure on math scores and 15.2% of the effect of ACEs exposure on English scores. Early detection and prevention of ACEs among children and adolescents are urgent and essential, and targeted interventions for sleep and emotional and behavioral performance as well as early educational interventions are recommended for children with ACEs exposure.

Maresin1 ameliorates MSU crystal-induced inflammation by upregulating Prdx5 expression.

BACKGROUND: Maresin1 (MaR1) is a potent lipid mediator that exhibits significant anti-inflammatory activity in the context of several inflammatory diseases. A previous study reported that MaR1 could suppress MSU crystal-induced peritonitis in mice. To date, the molecular mechanism by which MaR1 inhibits MSU crystal-induced inflammation remains poorly understood. METHODS: Mousebone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) were pretreated with MaR1 and then stimulated with FAs (palmitic, C16:0 and stearic, C18:0) plus MSU crystals (FAs + MSUc). In vivo, the effects of MaR1 treatment or Prdx5 deficiency on MSUc induced peritonitis and arthritis mouse models were evaluated. RESULTS: The current study indicated that MaR1 effectively suppressed MSUc induced inflammation in vitro and in vivo. MaR1 reversed the decrease in Prdx5 mRNA and protein levels induced by FAs + MSUc. Further assays demonstrated that MaR1 acceleratedPrdx5 expression by regulating the Keap1-Nrf2 signaling axis. Activation of AMPK by Prdx5 improved homeostasis of the TXNIP and TRX proteins and alleviated mitochondrial fragmentation. In addition, Prdx5 overexpression inhibited the expression of CPT1A, a key enzyme for fatty acid oxidation (FAO). Prdx5 protected against defects in FA + MSUc induced FAO and the urea cycle. CONCLUSION: MaR1 treatment effectively attenuated MSUc induced inflammation by upregulating Prdx5 expression. Our study provides a new strategy by which Prdx5 may help prevent acute gout attacks.

Effect of important modifiers on harmful effects in evidence synthesis practice of adverse events were insufficiently investigated: an empirical investigation.

BACKGROUND: Safety is important in the assessment of health interventions, while the results of adverse events are often susceptive to potential effect modifiers since the event risk tends to be rare. In this study, we investigated whether the potential impact of the important effect modifiers on harmful effects was analyzed in meta-analyses of adverse events. METHODS: Systematic reviews of healthcare interventions, had adverse events as the exclusive outcomes, had at least one meta-analysis, and published between 1st January 2015, and 1st January 2020 were collected. An adverse event was defined as any untoward medical occurrence in a patient or subject in healthcare practice. Six effect modifiers that are the most important for harmful effects were identified by a group discussion. The proportions of eligible systematic reviews that investigated the potential impact of the six effect modifiers on harmful effects were summarized. RESULTS: We identified 279 systematic reviews eligible for this study. Except for the modifier of interventions/controls (70.61%, 197/279), most of the systematic reviews failed to investigate the potential impact of treatment duration (21.15%, 59/279), dosage (24.73%, 69/279), age (11.47%, 32/279), risk of bias (6.45%, 18/279), and source of funding (1.08%, 3/279) on harmful effects. Systematic reviews with meta-analyses containing more studies were more likely to investigate the potential impacts of these modifiers on the effects, but the proportion was still low (2.3% to 33.3%). Systematic reviews that developed a protocol were significantly more likely to investigate the potential impact of all these effect modifiers (e.g. treatment duration: odds ratio = 5.08, 95% CI: 2.76 to 9.35) on the results. CONCLUSIONS: Current systematic reviews rarely investigated the potential impact of the important effect modifiers on harmful effects. Methodological guidelines for meta-analysis of adverse events should consider "effect modifier" as one of the domains to help systematic review authors better investigate harmful effects.

Role of HOMA-IR and IL-6 as screening markers for the metabolic syndrome in patients with chronic schizophrenia: a psychiatric hospital-based cross-sectional study.

This study starts from the metabolic related indexes and cellular inflammatory factors in patients with chronic schizophrenia to find out that it can be used as an effective screening index of metabolic syndrome. 320 patients with chronic schizophrenia (course of disease > 5 years) and 165 healthy subjects were selected. The mental symptoms of the patients were measured by positive and negative syndrome scale. Blood samples from patients and healthy controls were collected to detect blood glucose, triglyceride, HDL and fasting insulin. The serum levels of IL-1ß, IL-2, IL-6, IL-17, IFN-γ and TNF-α were determined repeatedly by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The levels of HOMA-IR, plasma inflammatory factors IL-2, IL-6, IL-17 and TNF-α in patient group were higher than those in healthy group. It was found that there were differences in age and related metabolic indexes between patients with chronic schizophrenia with and without metabolic syndrome. In addition, HOMA-IR, plasma cytokines IL-2 and IL-6 still showed differences between groups. In the Spearmen correlation analysis of insulin resistance index, cytokines and metabolic indexes, it was found that there was a significant correlation between HOMA-IR, IL-6 and related metabolic indexes and metabolic syndrome. ROC curve analysis showed that HOMAIR and IL-6 could be used as screening indexes for MS in male and female patients with schizophrenia.Metabolic syndrome is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease in patients with chronic schizophrenia. HOMA-IR and IL-6 can be used as effective biological indicators to screen MS in patients with chronic schizophrenia.

Smartphone video games improve cognitive function in patients with chronic schizophrenia: a randomized controlled trial.

This study aimed to examine the efficacy of video games in improving cognitive function in chronic patients with schizophrenia and to evaluate the biomarker of video games for cognitive function. The patients in the game group were requested to play single-player video games on their smartphones for 1 h per day, five times a week for 6 weeks. Those in the control group watched television for 1 h per day, five times a week for 6 weeks. Cognitive function was assessed using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT). Clinical symptoms were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), Problematic Mobile Gaming Questionnaire (PMGQ), and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). The game group demonstrated improved RBANS total score during the trial. There were no significant group effects among all SCWT scores. The game group demonstrated greater improvement on the PANSS Negative Scale, and global function (GAF score). The PMGQ scores were lower than the cutoff score at all time points in both groups. There were no significant group differences in the PHQ-9 and GSE scores. The serum BDNF levels were significantly higher in the game group following 6 weeks of video game intervention. The BDNF serum levels of all participants were positively associated with the RBANS total scores. This preliminary study suggested that video games can improve cognitive function in schizophrenia patients. Serum BDNF levels may be a suitable biomarker for predicting an improvement in cognitive function in schizophrenia patients.Trial registration: This study was registered on March 11, 2021 (ChiCTR2100044113).Clinical trials: Smartphone video games improve cognitive function in patients with chronic schizophrenia; https://www.chictr.org.cn/hvshowproject.aspx?id=95623 ; ChiCTR2100044113.

Synergetic effect on fouling alleviating of membrane distillation in urine resource recovery by thermally activated peroxydisulfate pretreatment.

Given that the spontaneous precipitation of minerals caused by urea hydrolysis and abundant organic compounds, membrane fouling became a major obstacle for urine recovery by membrane distillation (MD). Herein, this study developed a combined system (TAP-MD) by integrating thermally activated peroxydisulfate (TAP) and MD process to inhibit membrane fouling and improve separation efficiency. Based on the TAP-MD system, the separation performance was improved significantly, improving nutrient recovery efficiency and quality of reclaimed water. More than 80% of water could be recovered from urine, and about 94.13% of total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), 99.02% of total nitrogen (TN), 100% of total phosphate (TP), and 100% of K+ were rejected. The mechanism for alleviating urine-induced fouling was systematically and intensively studied. With TAP pretreatment, the TAN concentration of pretreated urine was kept at a low level steadily and the pH was at neutral or weakly acidic. Hence, inorganic scaling represented by carbonate and phosphate precipitates were significantly inhibited by creating unfavorable solvent environment for crystallization with TAP pretreatment. Additionally, aromatic proteins were found as the main organic foulants. According to the secondary structure of protein, the proteins were degraded by the cleavage of peptide bonds by TAP pretreatment. Meanwhile, the hydrophilicity of protein increased, which reduced the hydrophobic interaction of protein and membrane surface and thus alleviated protein-induced membrane fouling. This study revealed the inorganic and organic foulants in urine that caused membrane fouling and demonstrated the mechanism of membrane fouling alleviation by TAP-MD system. The experimental results will be instrumental in better understanding the mechanisms of membrane fouling induced by urine and optimize MD process for resource recovery from urine.

Depression severity mediates stigma and quality of life in clinically stable people with schizophrenia in rural China.

BACKGROUND: Depressive symptoms associated with schizophrenia are closely related to stigma and quality of life(QOL). There is, however, no thorough research on the connection between the three. This study sought to investigate the possible factors influencing depressive symptoms in people with schizophrenia (PWS) in rural Chaohu, China, and to further explore the role of depression severity in stigma and lifestyle quality. METHODS: Eight hundred twenty-one schizophrenia patients accomplished the entire scale, including the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Social Impact Scale (SIS), and the World Health Organization on Quality of Life Brief Scale(WHOQOL-BREF). A straightforward mediation model was employed to determine if the intensity of the depression could act as a mediator between stigma and QOL. RESULTS: Two hundred seventy-nine schizophrenia patients (34%) had depressive symptoms (PHQ ≥ 10), and 542 patients (66%) did not (PHQ < 10). Logistic regression showed that marital status, job status, physical exercise, standard of living, and stigma contributed to the depressed symptoms of schizophrenia. Depression severity partially mediated the effect between stigma and QOL, with a mediating effect of 48.3%. CONCLUSIONS: This study discovered a significant incidence of depressed symptoms associated with schizophrenia, with depression severity serving as a mediator variable connecting stigma and QOL and partially moderating the association.

Sevoflurane-induced P300 promotes neuron apoptosis via Sp1/CDK9 pathway.

Exposure to sevoflurane leads to serious neurological side effects, including neuronal apoptosis and cognitive impairment. In the mouse model, cyclin dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) was significantly downregulated after exposure to sevoflurane, but the effect of CDK9 on neuronal apoptosis and cognitive impairment after sevoflurane exposure has not been elucidated. Here, we found that the upregulation of P300 by sevoflurane in vitro and in vivo inhibited the expression of CDK9 and induced neuron apoptosis. The effect of sevoflurane on CDK9 expression is based on inhibition of its transcription process. P300 inhibited the binding of Sp1 to DNA by affecting the level of Sp1 acetylation, thereby inhibiting the expression of CDK9, cell-cycle arrest and increasing neuron apoptosis. After the use of P300 inhibitor, the acetylation level of Sp1 decreased, thereby increasing binding in the CDK9 promoter region and exerting anti-apoptosis effects. Mice exposed to sevoflurane using P300 inhibitor also showed decreased levels of apoptosis of cortical cells and a decrease in recent cognitive impairment. In summary, sevoflurane-induced P300 inhibited activity of Sp1 by increasing Sp1 acetylation modification, down-modulates CDK9 expression and promotes the occurrence of neuronal apoptosis.

Comprehensive Genomic Analysis Reveals Extensive Diversity of Type I and Type IV Secretion Systems in Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The diversity and distribution of secretion systems in Klebsiella pneumoniae are unclear. In this study, the six common secretion systems (T1SS-T6SS) were comprehensively investigated in the genomes of 952 K. pneumoniae strains. T1SS, T2SS, type T subtype of T4SS, T5SS, and subtype T6SSi of T6SS were found. The findings indicated fewer types of secretion systems in K. pneumoniae than reported in Enterobacteriaceae, such as Escherichia coli. One conserved T2SS, one conserved T5SS, and two conserved T6SS were detected in more than 90% of the strains. In contrast, the strains displayed extensive diversity of T1SS and T4SS. Notably, T1SS and T4SS were enriched in the hypervirulent and classical multidrug resistance pathotypes of K. pneumoniae, respectively. The results expand the epidemiological knowledge of the virulence and transmissibility of pathogenic K. pneumoniae and contribute to identify the potential strains for safe applications.

The dynamics and removal efficiency of antibiotic resistance genes by UV-LED treatment: An integrated research on single- or dual-wavelength irradiation.

Antimicrobial resistance has gained increasing attention, because of the awareness of its potential health risks. Strategies for the removal of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are urgently required. In the present study, UV-LEDs at wavelength of 265 and 285 nm were integrated at five conditions, including single 265 nm UV-LED, single 285 nm UV-LED, and combined 265 nm and 285 nm UV-LED at different intensities, to remove tet A, cat 1, and amp C. The ARGs removal efficiency, gene behavior, and possible cellular mechanism were analyzed using real-time quantitative PCR, flow cytometry, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The 265 nm UV-LED is more effective than the 285 nm UV-LED and their combinations in terms of ARGs control, in which 1.91, 1.71, and 1.45 log were removed for tet A, cat 1, and amp C, respectively, at a UV dosage of 500 mJ/cm2. The intracellular gene leakage was detected in all five UV-LED experiment scenarios even when the cell membrane damage was insignificant with the highest increase of 0.69 log ARGs. ROS was generated during the irradiation, and the ROS was strongly negative correlated with intracellular ARGs, which could promote the degradation and removal of ARGs. This study provides a new insight of intracellular ARGs removal, because direct irradiation, ROS oxidation, and leakage to the extracellular serve as the three main pathways under high-dosage UV-LED irradiation. Further research should be focused on the mechanism and optimization of UV technology with 265 nm UV-LED for ARG control.

Brain-derived subgroups of bipolar II depression associate with inflammation and choroid plexus morphology.

AIM: Elevated inflammation and larger choroid plexus (ChP) volume has been previously identified in mood disorders. Connections between inflammation, ChP, and clinical symptoms in bipolar II depression (BDII-D) are unclear. Data-driven clustering based on neuroanatomical phenotypes may help to elucidate neurobiological associations in BDII-D. METHODS: Inflammatory cytokines, clinical symptoms, and neuroanatomical features were assessed in 150 BDII-D patients. Sixty-eight cortical surface area (SA) and 19 subcortical volumes were extracted using FreeSurfer. The ChP volume was segmented manually using 3D Slicer. Regularized canonical correlation analysis was used to identify significantly correlated components between cortical SA and subcortical volumes (excluding the ChP), followed by k-means clustering to define brain-derived subgroups of BDII-D. Low-grade inflammation was derived by averaging the standardized z scores of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1ß, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), which were computed to create a composite z-value score. Partial Pearson correlations followed by multiple comparison correction were conducted to explore associations between inflammation, clinical symptoms, and ChP volume. RESULTS: Subgroup I demonstrated smaller subcortical volume and cortical SA, higher inflammation, and larger ChP volume compared with subgroup II. Greater ChP volume was associated with a higher low-grade inflammation (mean r = 0.289, q = 0.003), CRP (mean r = 0.249, q = 0.007), IL-6 (left r = 0.200, q = 0.03), and TNF-α (right r = 0.226, q = 0.01), while greater IL-1ß was significantly associated with severe depressive symptoms in BDII-D (r = 0.218, q = 0.045). CONCLUSIONS: Neuroanatomically-derived subgroups of BDII-D differed in their inflammation levels and ChP volume. These findings suggest an important role of elevated peripheral inflammation and larger ChP in BDII-D.

A Novel Type of Boundary Extraction Method and Its Statistical Improvement for Unorganized Point Clouds Based on Concurrent Delaunay Triangular Meshes.

Currently, three-dimensional (3D) laser-scanned point clouds have been broadly applied in many important fields, such as non-contact measurements and reverse engineering. However, it is a huge challenge to efficiently and precisely extract the boundary features of unorganized point cloud data with strong randomness and distinct uncertainty. Therefore, a novel type of boundary extraction method will be developed based on concurrent Delaunay triangular meshes (CDTMs), which adds the vertex-angles of all CDTMs around a common data point together as an evaluation index to judge whether this targeted point will appear at boundary regions. Based on the statistical analyses on the CDTM numbers of every data point, another new type of CDTM-based boundary extraction method will be further improved by filtering out most of potential non-edge points in advance. Then these two CDTM-based methods and popular α-shape method will be employed in conducting boundary extractions on several point cloud datasets for comparatively analyzing and discussing their extraction accuracies and time consumptions in detail. Finally, all obtained results can strongly demonstrate that both these two CDTM-based methods present superior accuracies and strong robustness in extracting the boundary features of various unorganized point clouds, but the statistically improved version can greatly reduce time consumption.

Correlation Between Defense Mechanisms and Parenting Style of Adolescents With Non-Suicidal Self-Injury.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is highly prevalent among adolescents. The current study aimed to explore defense mechanisms and parental styles of adolescents with NSSI behaviors. The Egna Minnen Barndoms Uppfostran (EMBU [One's Memories of Upbringing]) and Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) were used to evaluate 31 participants with NSSI behaviors in the experimental group and 60 participants with non-NSSI behaviors in the control group. There were significant differences in Father Factors II, V, and VI, and Mother Factors III and IV on the EMBU between the experimental and control groups. On the DSQ, there were significant differences in immature defense mechanism, mature defense mechanism, and camouflage factors between the experimental and control groups. In the experimental group, Father Factors I and IV and Mother Factors I and V were significantly correlated with mature defense mechanism. Father Factor VI and Mother Factors III and IV were significantly correlated with immature defense mechanism. Father Factors II and V were significantly correlated with camouflage factors. Defense mechanisms and parental styles of participants in the experimental group were different than those of the control group, and immature parental styles affect the formation of defense mechanisms. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 61(11), 17-22.].

Ultrasound-Directed Symmetry Breaking and Spin Filtering of Supramolecular Assemblies from only Achiral Building Blocks.

Herein we describe the self-assembly of an achiral molecule into macroscopic helicity as well as the emergent chiral-selective spin-filtering effect. It was found that a benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA) motif with an aminopyridine group in each arm could coordinate with AgI and self-assemble into nanospheres. Upon sonication, symmetry breaking occurred and the nanospheres transferred into helical nanofibers with strong CD signals. Although the sign of the CD signals appeared randomly, it could be controlled by using the as-made chiral assemblies as a seed. Furthermore, it was found that the charge transport of the helical nanofibers was highly selective with a spin-polarization transport of up to 45 %, although the chiral nanofibers are composed exclusively from achiral building blocks. This work demonstrates symmetry breaking under sonication and the chiral-selective spin-filtering effect.

A novel ratiometric fluorescent probe for the detection and imaging of cysteine in living cells.

Cysteine is an essential amino acid for humans and can be generated from the conversion of methionine or the interconversions with cystine. The detection of cysteine in the living system is of great importance for the diagnosis of related diseases. Based on the classical cysteine response mechanism, the sulfhydryl group of cysteine undergoes Michael addition with the acrylate to rapidly respond to form a seven-membered ring that specifically recognizes cysteine. In the present work, we designed a novel ratiometric fluorescent probe N-1, which contained the benzo[cd]indol fluorophore and the response group acrylate. As the concentration of cysteine increased, the fluorescence of I485 was significantly enhanced while the fluorescence intensity at 635 nm was weakened. Moreover, probe N-1 showed excellent sensitivity and selectivity to Cys with the calculated LOD of 4.0 × 10-9 M. Probe N-1 was successfully used for imaging cysteine in the living Hela cells with low cytotoxicity, indicating that this ratiometric fluorescent probe would be a novel and useful tool to monitor cysteine in the physiological or pathological processes.