The type 2 diabetes mellitus susceptibility gene CDKAL1 polymorphism is associated with depressive symptom in first-episode drug-naive schizophrenic patients.

BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia have an increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus that has shown a significant association with the rs7754840 polymorphism in the gene encoding the cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) regulatory subunit-associated protein 1-like 1 (CDKAL1). OBJECTIVE: To examine whether this polymorphism was involved in the susceptibility in first-episode drug-naive schizophrenic patients (FDSP), and further influenced their clinical symptoms. METHODS: This polymorphism was genotyped in 239 FDSP and 368 healthy controls. The clinical symptoms in FDSP were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) five-factor models. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the allelic and genotypic frequencies of this polymorphism between two groups (both p > 0.05) after adjusting for covariates. However, the PANSS depressive score significantly differed by genotype in FDSP after adjusting for covariates (F = 5.25, p = 0.006). This significant difference also persisted after Bonferroni correction (p < 0.05). FDSP with C/C genotype had significantly higher PANSS depressive score than those with C/G genotype (p = 0.007) and those with G/G genotype (p = 0.005). Moreover, further stepwise multivariate regression analysis showed the significant association between the rs7754840 polymorphism and PANSS depressive score in FDSP (ß = -1.07, t = -2.75, p = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrated that although the CDKAL1 rs7754840 polymorphism did not contribute to the susceptibility to FDSP, it might be implicated in depressive symptoms in this patient group.

Association between PLA2G12A polymorphism and patients with schizophrenia in a southern Chinese Han population.

BACKGROUND: Elevated phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activity is reported to be involved in the development of schizophrenia. Further study revealed an association between PLA2 groups XIIA (PLA2G12A) polymorphism and patients with schizophrenia in a northeast Chinese Han population. OBJECTIVE: This study will further examine whether PLA2G12A rs3087494 polymorphism is associated with patients with schizophrenia in a southern Chinese Han population. METHODS: This polymorphism was genotyped in 438 patients with schizophrenia (diagnosed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV) and 876 healthy controls using a case-control design. Demographic and clinical data were collected in all subjects. RESULTS: The allele and genotype frequencies of PLA2G12A rs3087494 polymorphism significantly differed between groups (both, p < .001). These differences still were significant by adjusting for sex and age. However, there was no difference in age at onset among 3 genotype groups in patients with schizophrenia by adjusting for the variables (F = 0.22, p = .80). Stepwise multivariate regression analysis showed that this polymorphism was not associated with age at onset in patients with schizophrenia (ß = .008, t = .07, p = .94). CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that even though PLA2G12A rs3087494 polymorphism did not influence age at onset in patients with schizophrenia, it may play an important role in the susceptibility to schizophrenia in a southern Chinese Han population.

Second-order calibration serves as a remedial measure for the simultaneous determination of andrographolide and dehydroandrographolide in Andrographis paniculata and its preparations by HPLC without complete baseline separation.

In this work, high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection was applied for the simultaneous determination of andrographolide and dehydroandrographolide in Andrographis paniculata and its preparations. As a result of the incomplete baseline separation caused by complex backgrounds, the classical univariate calibration method failed to determine accurate contents of the analytes. On this occasion, chemometric second-order calibration based on the well-known alternating trilinear decomposition algorithm was then explored to serve as a post-experimental remedial tool to solve this problem. By using the intelligent "mathematical separation" of alternating trilinear decomposition, the peak areas of the analytes do not need to be directly measured and the predictive results become accurate. The contents of andrographolide and dehydroandrographolide were determined to be (7.95 ± 0.15) and (1.85 ± 0.02) µg/mL for Andrographis paniculata, (1.34 ± 0.01) and (5.53 ± 0.04) µg/mL for its preparations, which was in agreement with those obtained by a reference liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry method. This study showed the superiority of second-order calibration method over classical univariate calibration method for simultaneous determination of multi-analytes in complex samples. It also proved that second-order calibration may be a good choice for remedying incomplete baseline separation problem, with the accompanied reduction of experimental burden and toxic organic solvents as well as analysis time and cost.

Elevated triglyceride levels are associated with cognitive impairments among patients with major depressive disorder.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive deficits have been identified as one of core clinical symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD). Accumulating evidence indicated that triglycerides (TG) might be associated with MDD and cognitive decline. OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether patients with MDD had poorer cognitive functions than healthy controls, and further investigate whether TG levels were involved in MDD, and its cognitive impairments in a Han Chinese population. METHOD: 115 patients with MDD and 119 healthy controls were enrolled. Cognitive functions were assessed by the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), and serum TG levels were examined using enzymatic colorimetry. RESULTS: TG levels were higher in patients with MDD than healthy controls after controlling for the variables. Cognitive test scores were lower in patients with MDD than healthy controls except for visuospatial/constructional index after controlling for the variables. TG levels were negatively correlated with visuospatial/constructional score, delayed memory score and RBANS total score of MDD. Further multivariate regression analysis showed that TG levels were negatively associated with visuospatial/constructional score, attention score, delayed memory score and RBANS total score of MDD. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings supported that serum TG levels might be involved in MDD, and play an important role in cognitive impairments of MDD, especially in delayed memory. Moreover, patients with MDD experienced greater cognitive impairments than healthy controls except for visuospatial/constructional index.

Fast quantitative analysis of four tyrosine kinase inhibitors in different human plasma samples using three-way calibration-assisted liquid chromatography with diode array detection.

A simple method has been developed by combining high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection with the alternating trilinear decomposition method for simultaneous determination of four tyrosine kinase inhibitors in different human plasma samples. Chromatographic separation of the analytes was performed on a reversed-phase column with methanol (65%, v/v, A) and 0.1% aqueous solution of formic acid (35%, v/v, B). Analysis time was 5.0 min per run and analytes could be completely eluted within 2.8--3.8 min. The calibration concentration ranges of vandetanib, pazopanib, afatinib and dasatinib were designed as 0.50-6.10, 0.50-6.10, 0.70-7.00 and 0.70-7.00 µg·mL(-1), respectively. The intra- and inter-day RSDs ranged between 0.1 and 8.9%. Quantitative information could be extracted from the unsegregated interferences of different human plasma samples with the aid of the "second-order advantage" of three-way (second-order) calibration methods. All results demonstrated that the proposed method for direct quantitative analysis of four tyrosine kinase inhibitors in different complex systems possessed good characteristics of rapidity, sensitivity and efficiency, and it is expected to be an attractive choice in the fast analysis of clinical samples.

Effect of guava leaves on growth and the non-specific immune response of Penaeus monodon.

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) leaf extracts have antiviral and antibacterial activity against shrimp pathogens such as yellow-head virus (YHV), white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), and Vibrio harveyi, which make it a potential water disinfectant for use in shrimp culture. In this study, the safety of guava leaf supplementation in shrimp was evaluated by studying its influence on growth and the non-specific immune response of Penaeus monodon. Six diets containing different levels of guava leaves (0% [basal diet], 0.025% [G1], 0.05% [G2], 0.1% [G3], 0.2% [G4], and 0.4% [G5]) were fed to groups of shrimp (1.576 ± 0.011 g body weight) in triplicate for 56 days. Growth performance (final body weight, WG, PWG, SGR) of shrimp fed guava leaf diets was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than that of shrimp fed on the basal diet. The G1 diet resulted in the highest body weight gain (308.44%), followed by the G2 (295.45%), G3 (283.05%), G5 (281.29%), G4 (276.11%), and finally the basal diet (214.58%). Survival of shrimp in the G1 diet group was higher than that of shrimp in the control and the other experimental groups; however, no statistical differences (P > 0.05) were found. Dietary supplementation with guava leaf improved the activities of prophenoloxidase (PO) and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in serum, and of superoxide dismutase (SOD), acid phosphatase (ACP), alkaline phosphatase (AKP), and lysozyme (LSZ) both in serum and hepatopancreas of shrimp. In the experimental groups, the activities of these enzymes followed a similar pattern of change; they increased initially at low levels of dietary supplementation and then decreased with increasing concentrations of dietary guava leaf. Serum PO and SOD activities in shrimp fed the G1 diet reached 7.50 U ml(-1) and 178.33 U ml(-1), respectively, with PO activity being significantly higher than in controls. In shrimp fed the G1 diet, SOD, ACP, and AKP activities in hepatopancreas were significantly higher than in the controls, reaching 57.32 U g(-1), 23.28 U g(-1), and 19.35 U g(-1) protein, respectively. The highest activities of serum ACP, AKP, LSZ, and of hepatopancreas LSZ, were observed in the G3 diet group. Total nitric oxide synthase (TNOS) activity was highest (64.80 U ml(-1)) in the G4 diet group, which was significantly higher than that observed in the control group. These results suggest that dietary guava leaf supplementation could enhance the growth performance and non-specific immune response of P. monodon. Therefore, guava leaf is considered safe for use as a water disinfectant in shrimp culture.

Third-order calibration applied to process surfactant-modulated excitation-emission matrix four-way fluorescence data for the direct determination of four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in oilfield produced water.

Fluorescence spectroscopy is a powerful tool to determine polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) owing to the strong endogenous fluorescence of these compounds. However, the presence of unknown interferences and overlapped spectra hinders the accurate determination of PAHs in oilfield produced water. Moreover, surfactants frequently coexist in oilfield produced water and will seriously affect the fluorescence signals of PAHs. Herein, a new methodology applying third-order calibration to process four-way (4D) fluorescence data was proposed to solve these problems and achieve accurate determination of pyrene, fluorene, phenanthrene, and fluoranthene as an example in oilfield produced water. The methodology is based on excitation-emission matrix fluorescence modulated by different concentrations of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) in the analyzed samples. The 4D fluorescence data were processed by third-order calibration methods including four-way parallel factor analysis (4-PARAFAC) and alternating weighted residue constraint quadrilinear decomposition (AWRCQLD), and the results were compared with those of second-order calibration methods. It was proved that third-order calibration was capable of accurately identifying and quantifying PAHs together with SDBS in oilfield produced water, which has better quantitative results and figures of merit compared to second-order calibration. This study provided a new approach to generating 4D fluorescence data and opened up an avenue for the accurate determination of PAHs in complex oilfield produced water with surfactants.

UHPLC-QTOF-MS-based untargeted metabolomic authentication of Chinese red wines according to their grape varieties.

Wine is a very popular alcoholic drink owing to its health benefits of antioxidant effects. However, profits-driven frauds of wine especially false declarations of variety frequently occurred in markets. In this work, an UHPLC-QTOF-MS-based untargeted metabolomics method was developed for metabolite profiling of 119 bottles of Chinese red wines from four varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Gernischt, and Pinot Noir). The metabolites of red wines from different varieties were assessed using orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and analyzed using KEGG metabolic pathway analysis. Results showed that the differential compounds among different varieties of red wines are mainly flavonoids, phenols, indoles and amino acids. The KEGG metabolic pathway analysis showed that indoles metabolism and flavonoids metabolism are closely related to wine varieties. Based on the differential compounds, OPLS-DA models could identify external validation wine samples with a total correct rate of 90.9 % in positive ionization mode and 100 % in negative ionization mode. This study indicated that the developed untargeted metabolomics method based on UHPLC-QTOF-MS is a potential tool to identify the varieties of Chinese red wines.

Discrimination and prediction of Qingzhuan tea storage year using quantitative chemical profile combined with multivariate analysis: Advantages of MRMHR based targeted quantification metabolomics.

The duration of storage significantly influences the quality and market value of Qingzhuan tea (QZT). Herein, a high-resolution multiple reaction monitoring (MRMHR) quantitative method for markers of QZT storage year was developed. Quantitative data alongside multivariate analysis were employed to discriminate and predict the storage year of QZT. Furthermore, the content of the main biochemical ingredients, catechins and alkaloids, and free amino acids (FAA) were assessed for this purpose. The results show that targeted marker-based models exhibited superior discrimination and prediction performance among four datasets. The R2Xcum, R2Ycum and Q2cum of orthogonal projection to latent structure-discriminant analysis discrimination model were close to 1. The correlation coefficient (R2) and the root mean square error of prediction of the QZT storage year prediction model were 0.9906 and 0.63, respectively. This study provides valuable insights into tea storage quality and highlights the potential application of targeted markers in food quality evaluation.

[Progress in the application of novel nano-materials to the safety analysis of agricultural products].

The quality and safety of agricultural products are strongly related to human livelihood. Thus, the government and consumers have recently paid increased attention to the quality and safety of agricultural products. The development of efficient, rapid, and sensitive analytical methods for detecting pesticides, veterinary drugs, heavy metals, mycotoxins, and environmental pollutants in agricultural products is of great significance. Owing to the complexity of many sample matrices and the low concentration of pollutants in a typical sample, appropriate sample pretreatment steps are necessary to enrich pollutants in agricultural products. Solid-phase extraction (SPE) is the most widely used sample pretreatment technology; in this technique, the adsorbent generally determines the selectivity and efficiency of the extraction process. An increasing number of novel materials have been used as SPE adsorbents. The extraction efficiency, extraction selectivity, and analytical throughput of SPE could be greatly improved by combining these novel materials with various extraction modes (e. g., solid-phase microextraction, dispersed SPE, and magnetic SPE (MSPE)) during sample preparation. Because of their large specific surface area and high affinity toward target analytes, nanomaterials are often used as SPE adsorbents, thereby greatly improving the selectivity and sensitivity of the analytical technology. More importantly, these materials have become a priority area of research on preconcentration technologies for trace compounds in agricultural products. This paper summarizes the adsorption characteristics of several new nanomaterials, including magnetic materials, carbon-based materials, metal nanomaterials (MNs), metal oxide nanomaterials (MONs), metal organic frameworks (MOFs), and covalent organic frameworks (COFs). These nanomaterials present numerous advantages, such as large specific surface areas, high adsorption capacities, and tailorable structural designs. MSPE employs magnetic materials as sorbents to afford fast dispersion and efficient recycling when applied to complex sample matrices under an external magnetic field. The use of MSPE can avoid several typical problems associated with SPE such as poor adsorbent packing and high pressure, thereby greatly simplifying the pretreatment process and providing a high flux for sample analysis. Carbon-based materials are powdered or bulk nonmetallic solid materials with carbon as the main component; carbon and nitrogen materials, mesoporous carbon, carbon nanotubes, and graphene are some examples of these materials. These materials provide large specific surface areas, abundant pore structures, good thermal stability, high mechanical strength and adsorption capacity, and controllable morphology. Pure and modified carbon nanomaterials have been successfully used to purify target analytes from agricultural products. Given their unique physical and chemical properties, MNs and MONs have attracted significant interest for use in sample preparation. MNs and MONs with excellent thermal and mechanical stabilities show good resistance to a wide pH range and diverse organic solvents, which is crucial in adsorbent-based extraction methods. The surface of these materials can be easily modified with various ligands to improve their selectivity. MOFs and COFs present many advantages such as large specific surface areas, high porosity, adjustable pore performance, and good thermal stability. Several methods that employ novel adsorbent materials to analyze pollutants in a variety of agricultural products, such as chromatography, spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and other detection technologies, have been established. This paper also reviews the application of adsorbent materials in the analysis of agricultural product quality and safety, and discusses the future development trends of these sorbents in sample preparation for the safety analysis of agricultural products.

A Comprehensive Review on the Excitation-Emission Matrix Fluorescence Spectroscopic Characterization of Petroleum-Containing Substances: Principles, Methods, and Applications.

Petroleum-containing substance (PCS) is a general term used for petroleum and its derivatives. A comprehensive characterization of PCSs is crucial for resource exploitation, economic development and environmental protection. Fluorescence spectroscopy, especially excitation-emission matrix fluorescence (EEMF) spectroscopy, has been proved to be a powerful tool to characterize PCSs since its remarkable sensitivity, selectivity, simplicity and high efficiency. However, there is a lack of systematic review focusing on this field in the literature. This paper reviews the fundamental principles and measurements of EEMF for characterizing PCSs, and makes a systematic introduction to various information mining methods including basic peak information extraction, spectral parameterization and some commonly used chemometric methods. In addition, recent advances in applying EEMF to characterize PCSs during the whole life-cycle process of petroleum are also revisited. Furthermore, the current limitations of EEMF in the measurement and characterization of PCSs are discussed and corresponding solutions are provided. For promoting the future development of this field, the urgent need to build a relatively complete EEMF fingerprint library to trace PCSs, not only pollutants but also crude oil and petroleum products, is proposed. Finally, the extensions of EEMF to high-dimensional chemometrics and deep learning are prospected, with the expectation of solving more complex systems and problems.

Revealing the chemical differences and their application in the storage year prediction of Qingzhuan tea by SWATH-MS based metabolomics analysis.

It's generally believed that the longer the storage, the better the quality of dark tea, but the chemical differences of Qingzhuan tea (QZT) with different storage years is still unclear. Herein, in this work, an untargeted metabolomic approach based on SWATH-MS was established to investigate the differential compounds of QZT with 0-9 years' storage time. These QZT samples were roughly divided into two categories by principal component analysis (PCA). After orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), 18 differential compounds were putatively identified as chemical markers for the storage year variation of QZT. Heatmap visualization showed that the contents of catechins, fatty acids, and some phenolic acids significantly reduced, flavonoid glycosides, triterpenoids, and 8-C N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidinone-substituted flavan-3-ols (EPSFs) increased with the increase of storage time. Furthermore, these chemical markers were verified by the peak areas corresponding to MS2 ions from SWATH-MS. Based on the extraction chromatographic peak areas of MS and MS2 ions, a duration time prediction model was built for QZT with correlation coefficient R2 of 0.9080 and 0.9701, and RMSEP value of 0.85 and 1.24, respectively. This study reveals the chemical differences of QZT with different storage years and provides a theoretical basis for the quality evaluation of stored dark tea.

UHPLC-QTOF-MS-based untargeted metabolomics and mineral element analysis insight into the geographical differences of Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat cv. "Hangbaiju" from different origins.

Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat cv. "Hangbaiju" (HBJ), known as one of the "eight flavors of Zhejiang", is commonly used as a classical tea material for both food and medicine over three thousand years in China. The quality of HBJ is closely related to its geographical origins. However, the mechanism underlying the geographical differences of HBJ remains to be elucidated. In this study, an untargeted metabolomic strategy based on UHPLC-QTOF-MS was established to discover the differential metabolites in HBJ samples from four different origins and explore the possible relationship with mineral elements in planting soils by chemometric analysis. Eight compounds were screened and identified as the key differential metabolites in HBJ samples from different origins. Among them, four important pharmacodynamic compounds including L-arginine, rutin, chlorogenic acid and apigenin-7-O-glucoside are the most abundant in HBJ samples from Tongxiang region, which suggests that HBJ planted in Tongxiang has higher medicinal values. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that the contents of soil mineral elements are positively correlated with those of chlorogenic acid, rutin, apigenin-7-O-glucoside in HBJ samples. Furthermore, an interrelationship model based on random forest algorithm was established to successfully predict the contents of differential metabolites in HBJ samples by soil mineral elements. All these results indicated that the contents of differential metabolites in HBJ samples seemed to be affected by soil mineral elements and therefore resulted in the geographical differences of HBJ.

Discrimination of the harvesting season of green tea by alcohol/salt-based aqueous two-phase systems combined with chemometric analysis.

The flavor and aroma quality of green tea are closely related to the harvest season. The aim of this study was to identify the harvesting season of green tea by alcohol/salt-based aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) combined with chemometric analysis. In this paper, the single factor experiments (SFM) and response surface methodology (RSM) optimization were designed to investigate and select the optimal ATPS. A total of 180 green tea samples were studied in this work, including 86 spring tea and 94 autumn tea. After the active components in green tea samples were extracted by the optimal ethanol/(NH4)2SO4 ATPS, the qualitative and quantitative analysis was realized based on HPLC-DAD combined with alternating trilinear decomposition-assisted multivariate curve resolution (ATLD-MCR) algorithm, with satisfactory spiked recoveries (86.00 %-112.45 %). The quantitative results obtained from ATLD-MCR model were subjected to chemometric pattern recognition analysis. The constructed partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) models showed better results than the principal component analysis (PCA) model, and the R2Xcum values (>0.835) and R2Ycum (>0.937) were close to 1, the Q2cum values were greater than 0.75 (>0.933), and the differences between R2Ycum and Q2cum were not larger than 0.2, indicating excellent cross-validation prediction performance of the models. Furthermore, the classification results based on the hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) were consistent with the PCA, PLS-DA and OPLS-DA results, establishing a good correlation between tea active components and the harvesting seasons of green tea. Overall, the combination of ATPS and chemometric methods is accurate, sensitive, fast and reliable for the qualitative and quantitative determination of tea active components, providing guidance for the quality control of green tea.

Untargeted metabolomic analysis of Chinese red wines for geographical origin traceability by UPLC-QTOF-MS coupled with chemometrics.

Identifying geographical origins of red wines made in specific regions is of significance since the false claim of geographical origins has been frequently exposed in China's wine industry. In this work, an untargeted metabolomic approach based on UPLC-QTOF-MS was established to discriminate geographical origins of Chinese red wines. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed significant differences between wine samples from three famous geographical origins in China. The metabolites contributing to the differentiation were screened by orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) with pairwise modeling. 40 and 46 differential metabolites in positive and negative ionization modes were putatively identified as chemical markers. Furthermore, heatmap visualization and OPLS-DA models were constructed based on these identified markers and external verification wine samples from different regions were successfully discriminated, with recognition rate up to 96.7%. This study indicated that UPLC-QTOF-MS-based untargeted metabolomics has great potential for the geographical origin traceability of Chinese red wines.

Highly fluorescent N doped C-dots as sensor for selective detection of Hg2+ in beverages.

In this work, nitrogen doped carbon dots (NCDs) were synthesized through one step hydrothermal reaction using citric acid and ethylenediamine as precursors. The prepared NCDs exhibit high quantum yield of 67.4%, good stability, excellent selectivity and sensitivity. It was found that the NCDs have potential as a fluorescence sensor for the detection of Hg2+. Under optimal conditions, good linearity between the change in NCDs fluorescence intensity and Hg2+ concentration was obtained in the range of 0.3 to 2.0 µM with a detection limit at 0.24 µM. The possible detection mechanism was static quenching of NCDs by Hg2+. The established method was successfully applied to the determination of Hg2+ in beverage samples. The results indicated that the NCDs-based sensor has potential for detection of Hg2+ in real beverage sample.

HPLC-DAD fingerprints combined with chemometric techniques for the authentication of plucking seasons of Laoshan green tea.

Laoshan green teas plucked in summer and autumn were measured by high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). After baseline correction, the fingerprints data were resolved by multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) and a total of 57 components were acquired. Relative concentrations of these components were afterwards applied to distinguish plucking seasons using principal component analysis (PCA), support vector machines (SVM) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). For both SVM and PLS-DA models, the total recognition rates of training set, cross-validation and testing set were 100%, 91.3% and 100%, respectively. Besides, three variable selection methods were employed to determine characteristic components for the authentication of summer and autumn teas. Results showed that PLS-DA model based on three characteristic components selected by VIP possesses identical predictive ability as the original model. This study demonstrated that our proposed strategy is competent for the authentication of plucking seasons of Laoshan green tea.

Association between stereopsis deficits and attention decline in patients with major depressive disorder.

Cognitive and sensory deficits were considered a core feature of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, few studies investigated stereopsis integrity in patients with MDD. Thus, the objectives of this study investigated stereopsis integrity and its correlations with cognitive function and depressive symptom in patients with MDD. 90 patients with MDD and 116 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled in this study. Their stereoacuity was evaluated using the Titmus Stereopsis Test as well as assessing their cognitive function and depressive symptom by the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD). Log seconds of arc was significantly higher in patients than HCs (1.92 ± 0.41 versus 1.67 ± 0.16, t = 5.35, p < 0.0001). The percentage of patients with correct stereopsis detection was markedly declined in 400 (z = 3.06, p = 0.002), 200 (z = 3.84, p < 0.001), 140 (z = 4.73, p < 0.001), 100 (z = 4.58, p < 0.001), 80 (z = 5.06, p < 0.001), 60 (z = 4.72, p < 0.001), 50 (z = 4.24, p < 0.001), and 40 (z = 4.85, p < 0.001) seconds of arc compared with HCs. Log seconds of arc was significantly correlated with the RBANS total score (r = -0.38, p < 0.0001), subscores of attention (r = -0.49, p < 0.0001) and language (r = -0.33, p = 0.001) rather than HAMD score (r = 0.03, p = 0.78) in MDD patients. In addition, log seconds of arc was significantly related to the RBANS total score (r = -0.58, p < 0.0001) and language score (r = -0.45, p = 0.006) rather than attention score (r = -0.30, p = 0.07) in HCs. Further stepwise multivariate regression analyses showed the negative correlation of log seconds of arc with attention score (ß = -0.80, t = -3.95, p < 0.0001) rather than HAMD score (ß = -0.008, t = -0.09, p = 0.93) in MDD patients. However, there was no relationship between log seconds of arc and attention score in HCs (ß = 1.52, t = 1.19, p = 0.24). Our results identified the marked deficits of stereopsis in MDD patients that were tightly correlated with their attention functioning rather than depressive symptom.

Impact of diverse background interferences on the alternating trilinear decomposition modeling of excitation-emission matrix fluorescence data acquired from different sample sources.

Alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) method enables the qualitative and quantitative analysis of excitation-emission matrix fluorescence (EEMF) data acquired from complex samples. However, the impact of diverse background interferences from different sample sources on the performances of ATLD method has never been lucubrated. In this work, simulated and real EEMF data sets from different sample sources with diverse background interferences were collected and subjected to ATLD analysis. The performances of ATLD modeling individual and global EEMF data sets were comprehensively compared in terms of the resolved spectral profiles and quantitative results. It was found that ATLD method can use the same set of calibration samples to resolve and quantify multiple components of interest in multiple complex systems with diverse background interferences, regardless of individual or global modeling. The results revealed that the qualitative and quantitative results provided by ATLD method were affected neither by diversity of background interferences nor by data merging as long as the acquired EEMF data sets conform to the trilinear component model. This property of ATLD method can enrich the "second-order advantage", i.e. the term "unknown interferences" in the concept of "second-order advantage" refers to not only constant background interferences but also diverse background interferences, which will be certain to further expand the practicality of ATLD method in complex sample analysis, especially in the field of fluorescence spectroscopy.

Increasing of FKBP9 can predict poor prognosis in patients with prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: FK506 binding protein 9 (FKBP9) has been reported and identified for a long time, but its relationship with cancer is rarely studied. For example, the role of FK506 binding protein 9 in prostate cancer (PCa) is still unclear. Therefore, we decided to detect the expression level of FKBP9 in PCa and explore its clinical significance. METHODS: The expression level of FKBP9 protein was detected by immunohistochemistry. In addition, it was demonstrated by high-throughput sequencing of mRNA levels in the TCGA (cancer genome atlas) dataset of 499 patients. Kaplan-meier analysis and Cox proportional hazard regression model were used to evaluate the relationship between FKBP9 expression and survival in prostate cancer patients. RESULTS: The expression of FKBP9 was localized in the cytoplasm, which in normal prostate tissues was obviously lower than that in PCa tissues (P = 0.001). High expression of FKBP9 was related with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.022) and distant metastasis (P = 0.028). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that the BCR-free survival of PCa patients with high FKBP9 level was significantly shortened (P=0.041). CONCLUSIONS: FKBP9 may be a cancer promoter that enhances PCa progression, and the level of FKBP9 may be used as an independent precursor of PCa patients.