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Objective: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by heightened sensitivity to social interactions or settings, which disrupts daily activities and social relationships. This study aimed to explore the feasibility of utilizing digital phenotypes for predicting the severity of these symptoms and to elucidate how the main predictive digital phenotypes differed depending on the symptom severity. Method: We collected 511 behavioral and physiological data over 7 to 13 weeks from 27 SAD and 31 healthy individuals using smartphones and smartbands, from which we extracted 76 digital phenotype features. To reduce data dimensionality, we employed an autoencoder, an unsupervised machine learning model that transformed these features into low-dimensional latent representations. Symptom severity was assessed with three social anxiety-specific and nine additional psychological scales. For each symptom, we developed individual classifiers to predict the severity and applied integrated gradients to identify critical predictive features. Results: Classifiers targeting social anxiety symptoms outperformed baseline accuracy, achieving mean accuracy and F1 scores of 87% (with both metrics in the range 84-90%). For secondary psychological symptoms, classifiers demonstrated mean accuracy and F1 scores of 85%. Application of integrated gradients revealed key digital phenotypes with substantial influence on the predictive models, differentiated by symptom types and levels of severity. Conclusions: Leveraging digital phenotypes through feature representation learning could effectively classify symptom severities in SAD. It identifies distinct digital phenotypes associated with the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions of SAD, thereby advancing the understanding of SAD. These findings underscore the potential utility of digital phenotypes in informing clinical management.
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One's own voice undergoes unique processing that distinguishes it from others' voices, and thus listening to it may have a special neural basis for self-talk as an emotion regulation strategy. This study aimed to elucidate how neural effects of one's own voice differ from those of others' voices on the implementation of emotion regulation strategies. Twenty-one healthy adults were scanned using fMRI while listening to sentences synthesized in their own or others' voices for self-affirmation and cognitive defusion, which were based on mental commitments to strengthen one's positive aspects and imagining metaphoric actions to shake off negative aspects, respectively. The interaction effect between voice identity and strategy was observed in the superior temporal sulcus, middle temporal gyrus, and parahippocampal cortex, and activity in these regions showed that the uniqueness of one's own voice is reflected more strongly for cognitive defusion than for self-affirmation. This interaction was also seen in the precuneus, suggesting intertwining of self-referential processing and episodic memory retrieval in self-affirmation with one's own voice. These results imply that unique effects of one's own voice may be expressed differently due to the degree of engagement of neural sharpening-related regions and self-referential networks depending on the type of emotion regulation.
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Spatially offset Raman scattering (SORS) line-mapping was explored as a versatile tool to examine accuracy variations in compositional analyses of tablets with different particle sizes. SORS spectra collected near the laser irradiation were less representative of tablet composition due to the limited spectroscopic sampling volume, while the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios of corresponding spectra were higher. On the other hand, SORS spectra at longer offset distances were better representative of tablet composition, while their S/N ratios were decreased considerably. Therefore, the use of only a certain portion of sliced (line-mapped) spectra balanced with the sample representation and S/N ratio could be advantageous to enhance accuracy. Moreover, a group of optimal slice spectra is expected to vary when the particle size of the tablet changes since the characteristics of internal photon propagation also would change. For the overall examination, SORS spectra of 30 Anaprox tablets (composed of 4 constituents including naproxen sodium) with 2 particle sizes (88.4 ± 11.8 µm and 118.9 ± 38.8 µm) were analyzed, and the concentrations of three components in these tablets were determined. A total of 6 cases (3 components and 2 particle sizes) were examined. When the average optimal slice spectra were employed in each case, the errors were lower compared to those using the average of all slice spectra. The demonstrated scheme was versatile to study the offset distance-dependent accuracy variations according to particle size and target component.
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Tamaño de la Partícula , Espectrometría Raman , Comprimidos , Espectrometría Raman/métodos , Naproxeno/análisis , Naproxeno/química , Relación Señal-RuidoRESUMEN
Natural purification of pollutants is highly recognized as regulating ecosystem services; however, the purification capacity of tidal flats remains largely unknown and/or unquantified. A 60-day mesocosm transplant experiment was conducted in situ to assess the purification capacity of natural tidal flats. We adopted the advanced sediment quality triad approach, monitoring 10 endpoints, including chemical reduction, toxicity changes, and community recoveries. The results indicated that contaminated sediments rapidly recovered over time, particularly > 50% within a day, then slowly recovered up to â¼ 70% in a given period (60 days). A significant early reduction of parent pollutants was evidenced across all treatments, primarily due to active bacterial decomposition. Notably, the presence of benthic fauna and vegetated halophytes in the treatments significantly enhanced the purification of pollutants in both efficacy and efficiency. A forecast linear modeling further suggested additive effects of biota on the natural purification of tidal flats, reducing a full recovery time from 500 to 300 days. Overall, the triad approach with machine learning practices successfully demonstrated quantitative insight into the integrated assessment of natural purification.
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Contaminantes Ambientales , Metales Pesados , Contaminantes Químicos del Agua , Ecosistema , Sedimentos Geológicos/química , Biota , Monitoreo del Ambiente/métodos , Contaminantes Químicos del Agua/toxicidad , Contaminantes Químicos del Agua/análisisRESUMEN
Relationship with parents is a special bond that shapes self-other representations and have an impact on adult-child's marriage, especially in the early stages of marriage. This study sought to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying self-parents processing as well as their relationship with marriage. Seventy-eight premarital Korean participants were scanned in functional MRI while evaluating traits of the self and parents. Then, 21 of them returned after being married to engage in the identical task three years later. The precuneus and temporoparietal junction were identified to activate stronger for parents than self at both marital statuses. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, parietal operculum, and caudate activated more for self than parents before marriage, but their activities changed during marriage. The activation increase of the parietal operculum between marital statuses in the parents condition was negatively correlated with the level of marital dissatisfaction, and this association only appeared among participants with a child. Self-parents processing may recruit brain regions involved in autobiographical memory and self-other distinction, and marriage has an impact on the way individuals process rewards and multimodal sensory information during this processing. Marriage may lead to changes in brain function that affect the processing of emotions toward parents and a more parents-oriented perspective shift in collectivistic societies.
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Matrimonio , Padres , Adulto , Humanos , Matrimonio/psicología , Padres/psicología , Emociones , Encéfalo/diagnóstico por imagenRESUMEN
Professional pride, including self-reflection and attitude toward one's own occupational group, induces individuals to behave in socially appropriate ways, and uniforms can encourage wearers to have this pride. This study was to elucidate the working pattern of professional pride by exploring neural responses when wearing uniforms and being conscious of a third-person's perspective. Twenty healthy adults who had an occupation requiring uniforms were scanned using functional MRI with a self-evaluation task consisting of 2 [uniform versus casual wear] × 2 [first-person perspective versus third-person perspective] conditions. The neural effects of clothing and perspective were analyzed and post-hoc tests were followed. The interaction effect was displayed in the bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, where uniform led to higher activity in third-person perspective than in first-person perspective, whereas casual wear led to the opposite pattern, suggesting this region may be involved in the awareness of third-person's perspective to uniform-wearing. The right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex showed functional connectivity with the right posterior superior temporal sulcus in uniform-third-person perspective compared to uniform-first-person perspective, suggesting this connection may work for processing information from third-person perspective in a uniform-wearing state. Professional pride may prioritize social information processing in third-person perspective rather than self-referential processing in first-person perspective.
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Mapeo Encefálico , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética , Humanos , Masculino , Femenino , Adulto Joven , Adulto , Encéfalo/fisiología , Encéfalo/diagnóstico por imagen , Vestuario/psicología , Emociones/fisiología , Corteza Prefrontal/fisiología , Corteza Prefrontal/diagnóstico por imagen , AutoimagenRESUMEN
Three new pimarane diterpenoids, libertellenones U-W (1-3), together with libertellenone C (4) and myrocin A (5) were isolated from an EtOAc-extract of Apiospora arundinis culture medium. The chemical structures of the new compounds were elucidated using MS, NMR, and CD spectroscopic data. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), the abnormal and pathological proliferation of epithelial and stromal cells in prostatic tissues, is a common disease in middle-aged and elderly men. In this study, the anti-BPH effects of myrocin A (5) were evaluated using BPH-1 and WPMY-1 cells. Treatment with myrocin A (5) exerted antiproliferative effects in BPH-1 and dihydrotestosterone (DHT)-stimulated WPMY-1 cells. In BPH, treatment with myrocin A (5) significantly suppressed the mRNA levels of androgen receptor (AR) and its downstream targets nuclear receptor coactivator 1 (NCOA1), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and kallikrein-related peptidase 3 (KLK3). Additionally, DHT-stimulated WPMY-1 cells demonstrated an upregulated mRNA levels of AR, NCOA1, PCNA, and KLK3. However, treatment with myrocin A (5) resulted in suppression of the mRNA levels. Moreover, myrocin A (5) docked computationally into the binding site of the androgen receptor (-5.5 kcal/mol).
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Sarcoscypha (Sarcoscyphaceae, Pezizales) is a saprobic fungus characterized by the cup or disc-shaped blight red apothecium and oblong to ellipsoid ascospores. The 18 species of Sarcoscypha were known to occur in Europe, North America, and tropical Asia. However, up to date, only two Sarcoscypha species have been reported in Korea. In this study, novel Sarcoscypha specimens were collected from Juwangsan, Odaesan, and Taebaeksan National Parks from September to October in Korea. This species is well distinguished from other Sarcoscypha species according to the molecular and phylogenetic analysis based on internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Here, we provided detailed descriptions with illustrations and a phylogenetic tree to report our specimens as novel Sarcoscypha species.
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Wood-decaying fungi are essential decomposers in forest ecosystems. They decompose wood substrates by producing various lignocellulolytic enzymes, which have significant industrial and medical applications. A survey was conducted at the Juwangsan National Park from 2018 to 2019 to determine the diversity of macrofungi in Korea. Five previously unrecorded wood-decaying polyporoid and corticioid fungi were identified among the collected specimens: Eichleriella sinensis, Hymenochaete anomala, Hyphoderma subsetigerum, Lyomyces orientalis, and Pseudowrightoporia crassihypha. These species were identified based on morphological, molecular, and phylogenetic analyses of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and nuclear large subunit rDNA (nLSU) region. In this study, we provide detailed macro- and micro-morphological figures with phylogenetic trees to support the discovery of five new species in Korea.
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Using mass spectrometry (MS)-guided isolation methods, a new thiodiketopiperazine derivative (1) and exserohilone (2) were isolated from an EtOAc-extract of Setosphaeria rostrata culture medium. The chemical structure of the new compound was elucidated by MS and NMR spectroscopy, and the absolute configurations were established by the quantum mechanical calculations of electronic circular dichroism. All isolated compounds were examined for their effects on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1) secretion, and procollagen type I α1 secretion in tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-induced human dermal fibroblasts. Compound 1 and exserohilone (2) exhibited the inhibition of TNF-α-induced ROS generation and MMP-1 secretion. Additionally, compound 1 and exserohilone (2) increased the procollagen type I α1 secretion. Compound 1 docked computationally into the active site of MMP-1 (-6.0 kcal/mol).
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Ascomicetos , Metaloproteinasa 1 de la Matriz , Factor de Necrosis Tumoral alfa , Humanos , Metaloproteinasa 1 de la Matriz/farmacología , Especies Reactivas de Oxígeno , FibroblastosRESUMEN
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) have emerged as a promising bio-compound in the industrial application due to their potential to replace conventional petroleum-based plastics with sustainable bioplastics. This study focuses on Halomonas sp. YJPS3-3, a halophilic bacterium, and presents a novel approach to enhance PHA production by exploiting its salt tolerance toward PHA biosynthesis. Through gamma irradiation-induced mutants with enhanced salt tolerance from 15% NaCl to 20% NaCl, mutant halo6 showing a significant 11% increase in PHA yield, was achieved. Moreover, the mutants displayed not only higher PHA content but also remarkable cell morphology with elongation. In addition, this research unravels the genetic determinants behind the elevated PHA content and identifies a corresponding shift in fatty acid composition favoring PHA accumulation. This novel mutant obtained from gamma irradiation with enhanced salt tolerance in halophilic bacteria opens up new avenues not only for the bioplastic industry but also for applications in the production of high-value metabolites.
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Halomonas , Polihidroxialcanoatos , Polihidroxibutiratos , Ácido 3-Hidroxibutírico/metabolismo , Tolerancia a la Sal , Cloruro de Sodio/farmacología , Cloruro de Sodio/metabolismo , Polihidroxialcanoatos/metabolismo , Biopolímeros/metabolismo , Halomonas/genética , Halomonas/metabolismoRESUMEN
Indoor air pollution remains a major concern, with formaldehyde (HCHO) a primary contributor due to its long emission period and associated health risks, including skin allergies, coughing, and bronchitis. This study evaluated the adsorption performance and economic efficiency of various adsorbents (biochar, activated carbon, zeolites A, X, and Y) selected for HCHO removal. The impact of thermal treatment on adsorbent regeneration was also assessed. The experimental apparatus featured an adsorption column and HCHO concentration meter with an electrochemical sensor designed for adsorption analysis. Zeolite X exhibited the highest adsorption performance, followed by zeolite A, zeolite Y, activated carbon, and biochar. All adsorbents displayed increased HCHO removal rates with an extended length/diameter (L/D) ratio of the adsorption column. Zeolite A demonstrated the highest economic efficiency, followed by zeolite X, activated carbon, zeolite Y, and biochar. Higher L/D ratios improved economic efficiency and prolonged the replacement cycle (the optimal timing for adsorbent replacement to maintain high adsorption performance). Sensitivity analysis of adsorbent regeneration under varying thermal treatment conditions (150, 120, and 80°C) and durations (60, 45, and 30 min) revealed minimal changes in adsorption efficiency (±3%). The results indicated the potential of adsorbent regeneration under energy-efficient thermal treatment conditions (80°C, 30 min). In conclusion, this study underscores the importance of a comprehensive assessment, considering factors such as adsorption performance, replacement cycle, economic efficiency, and regeneration performance for the selection of optimal adsorbents for HCHO adsorption and removal.Implications: This study underscores the importance of adsorption technology for the removal of formaldehyde and similar volatile organic compounds (VOCs), highlighting the potential of alternative adsorbents, such as environmentally friendly biochar, in addition to traditional strategies, such as activated carbon and zeolites. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of adsorbent regeneration under energy-efficient thermal treatment conditions. These results hold promise for improving indoor air quality, reducing environmental pollutants, and enhancing responses to air contaminants like fine dust and VOCs.
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Carbón Orgánico , Zeolitas , Carbón Orgánico/química , Zeolitas/química , Adsorción , Formaldehído/análisisRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairments occur on a continuous spectrum in multiple cognitive domains showing individual variability of the deteriorating patterns; however, often, cognitive domains are studied separately. METHODS: The present study investigated aging individual variations of cognitive abilities and related resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) using data-driven approach. Cognitive and neuroimaging data were obtained from 62 elderly outpatients with cognitive decline. Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted on the cognitive data to determine patterns of cognitive performance, then data-driven whole-brain connectome multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) was applied on the neuroimaging data to discover neural regions associated with the cognitive characteristic. RESULTS: The first component (PC1) delineated an overall decline in all domains of cognition, and the second component (PC2) represented a compensatory relationship within basic cognitive functions. MVPA indicated rsFC of the cerebellum lobule VIII and insula with the default-mode network, frontoparietal network, and salience network inversely correlated with PC1 scores. Additionally, PC2 score was related to rsFC patterns with temporal pole and occipital cortex. CONCLUSIONS: The featured primary cognitive characteristic depicted the importance of the cerebellum and insula connectivity patterns in of the general cognitive decline. The findings also discovered a secondary characteristic that communicated impaired interactions within the basic cognitive function, which was independent from the impairment severity.
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Disfunción Cognitiva , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética , Adulto , Humanos , Anciano , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética/métodos , Envejecimiento/psicología , Encéfalo/diagnóstico por imagen , Cognición , Disfunción Cognitiva/diagnóstico por imagenRESUMEN
For direct and non-sampling determination of the component concentration of a sample housed in a glass container, an axially slanted illumination (ASI) back-scattering Raman scheme that reduces glass background interference has been demonstrated. The strategy was to increase the distance between the spots illuminated by the laser on the glass container and the housed sample in back-scattering measurement. For realization, the laser initially illuminated at a slant through the upper side of the vial wall (sample-unoccupied space) and reach the top of the sample. By this way, fewer number of generated glass photons could be recognized by a detector since they are farther from the focal plane (sample-illumination spot). The concentration of rosuvastatin (2.98-4.14 wt%) in rosulord samples (mixed with five other excipients) was determined using the ASI back-scattering measurement. When the angle of illumination to the vertical axis was 30° and the distance from the center of the laser spot on the glass wall to the center of spot on the sample (DG-S) was 14.9 mm, the sample peaks became more apparent and characteristic due to the reduced glass background. The accuracy of the concentration measurement was superior to that obtained through conventional back-scattering, in which the DG-S was nearly zero. The proposed scheme provides a simple optical setting to suppress the glass background and takes advantage of the sensitivity of Raman analysis through back-scattering measurement, indicating it as an attractive option for through-container analysis.
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An orange-coloured bacterium, designated as strain GRR-S3-23T, was isolated from a tidal flat sediment collected from Garorim Bay, Chuncheongbuk-do, Republic of Korea. Cells of GRR-S3-23T were aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped and motile. GRR-S3-23T grew at 18-40 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 7.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and with 2-4â% NaCl (optimum, 2-3â% w/v). Results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that GRR-S3-23T was closely related to Tenacibaculum aiptasiae a4T (97.6â%), followed by Tenacibaculum aestuarii SMK-4T (97.5â%), Tenacibaculum mesophilum MBIC 1140T (97.4â%), Tenacibaculum singaporense TLL-A2T (97.3â%), Tenacibaculum crassostreae JO-1T (97.2â%),and Tenacibaculum sediminilitoris YKTF-3T (97.1â%). The average amino acid identity values between GRR-S3-23T and the related strains were 86.8-72.8â%, the average nucleotide identity values were 83.3-74.1â%, and the digital DNA-DNA hybridization values were 27.0-19.6â%. GRR-S3-23T possessed menaquinone-6 (MK-6) as major respiratory quinone and had summed feature 3 (C16â:â1ω7c and/or C16â:â1ω6c, 20.6â%) and iso-C15â:â1G (10.8â%) as major fatty acids (>10.0â%). The polar lipid profiles of GRR-S3-23T contained phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified aminolipid, one unidentified aminophospholipid, three unidentified lipids, one unidentified glycolipid and four unidentified phospholipids. The DNA G+C content of GRR-S3-23T was 33.7%. On the basis of the results of the polyphasic analysis involving phylogenetic, phylogenomic, physiological and chemotaxonomic analyses described in this study, GRR-S3-23T is considered to represent a novel species within the genus Tenacibaculum, for which the name Tenacibaculum tangerinum is proposed. The type strain is GRR-S3-23T (=KCTC 102029T=KACC 23271T=JCM 36353T).
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Ácidos Grasos , Tenacibaculum , Composición de Base , Ácidos Grasos/química , Filogenia , ARN Ribosómico 16S/genética , Análisis de Secuencia de ADN , ADN Bacteriano/genética , Técnicas de Tipificación BacterianaRESUMEN
Background: Older adults are vulnerable to comorbid depression and anxiety symptoms; however, these conditions are widely underrecognized and often untreated. Understanding their combined manifestation using objective measurements, such as clinician-rated scales and heart rate variability (HRV), can help refine the diagnosis and select a treatment strategy for geriatric patients. Methods: This study included patients over 65 years who were mainly diagnosed with either category of depressive or anxiety disorders from the psychiatric outpatient clinic in a university hospital. A total of 114 patients met eligibility with a completed collection of electrocardiograms, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS; clinician-rated depression), and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAS; clinician-rated anxiety) to assess the severity of symptoms. Both main and interaction effects between HDRS and HAS on HRV parameters were examined. Results: Significant interaction effects between clinician-rated depression and anxiety (HDRS × HAS) on HRV reduction in frequency parameters (i.e., nuLF, nuHF, LF/HF ratio) were found, which consistently indicated autonomic nervous system dysregulation. Findings imply that HRV could reflect synergistic effects of comorbid depressive and anxiety symptoms, perhaps due to the amplification of individual symptoms in geriatric patients. Conclusions: The results imply that using objective measurements can improve diagnostic accuracy, particularly in geriatric patients with comorbid status, and the normalization of the autonomic nervous system might be a candidate target for prevention and treatment.
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Post-transcriptional regulation of transcript abundances by RNA interference (RNAi) is a widely conserved regulatory mechanism to control cellular processes. We previously introduced an alternative siRNA structure called asymmetric siRNA (asiRNA), and showed that asiRNA exhibits comparable gene-silencing efficiency with reduced off-target effects compared with conventional siRNAs. However, to what extent the length of the guide strand affects the gene-silencing efficiency of asiRNAs is still elusive. In this study, we analyzed in detail the gene-silencing ability of asiRNAs along the guide strand length and immunostimulatory capacity of asiRNAs. We generated asiRNAs containing various guide strand lengths ranging from 25 to 29 nt, called long asiRNA (lasiRNA). We found that the gene-silencing activity of lasiRNAs decreased as the length of the guide strand increased. Nonetheless, the 3'-end overhangs that are complementary to the target gene have higher efficiency for gene silencing compared with mismatched overhangs. In addition, we found that the silencing efficiency of lasiRNAs correlates with their Ago2-binding affinity. Finally, replacing the mismatched overhang with a TLR7- or TLR9-associated immune response motif induced a toll-like receptor (TLR)-specific immune response and retained gene-silencing activity. Our findings demonstrate that lasiRNA structures can be tailored to function as bifunctional siRNA, which trigger a specific immune response combined with target gene silencing. Taken together, we anticipate that our findings provide a road map for the subsequent development of immune-stimulating lasiRNA, which bear the potential to be applied for therapeutic benefits.
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Silenciador del Gen , ARN Bicatenario , Animales , Humanos , ARN Interferente Pequeño/genética , ARN Interferente Pequeño/química , Células HeLa , Interferencia de ARN , Mamíferos/genéticaRESUMEN
Introduction: Myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) is the most common cause of heart failure in dogs, and assessing the risk of heart failure in dogs with MMVD is often challenging. Machine learning applied to electronic health records (EHRs) is an effective tool for predicting prognosis in the medical field. This study aimed to develop machine learning-based heart failure risk prediction models for dogs with MMVD using a dataset of EHRs. Methods: A total of 143 dogs with MMVD between May 2018 and May 2022. Complete medical records were reviewed for all patients. Demographic data, radiographic measurements, echocardiographic values, and laboratory results were obtained from the clinical database. Four machine-learning algorithms (random forest, K-nearest neighbors, naïve Bayes, support vector machine) were used to develop risk prediction models. Model performance was represented by plotting the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and calculating the area under the curve (AUC). The best-performing model was chosen for the feature-ranking process. Results: The random forest model showed superior performance to the other models (AUC = 0.88), while the performance of the K-nearest neighbors model showed the lowest performance (AUC = 0.69). The top three models showed excellent performance (AUC ≥ 0.8). According to the random forest algorithm's feature ranking, echocardiographic and radiographic variables had the highest predictive values for heart failure, followed by packed cell volume (PCV) and respiratory rates. Among the electrolyte variables, chloride had the highest predictive value for heart failure. Discussion: These machine-learning models will enable clinicians to support decision-making in estimating the prognosis of patients with MMVD.
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While interest in developing the human microbiome as a biomarker for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is increasing, there has been limited exploration in utilizing urine samples. In this study, we analysed urine microbiome profiles by extracting 16S ribosomal DNA from purified bacteria-derived extracellular membrane vesicles obtained from urine samples. Sequencing libraries were constructed by amplifying V3-V4 hypervariable regions sequenced using Illumina MiSeq. Profiles of male Korean children and adolescents with ADHD (n = 33) were compared with healthy sex-matched controls (n = 39). Statistically controlling for age, we found decreased alpha diversity in the urine bacteria of the ADHD group, as evidenced by reduced Shannon and Simpson indices (p < 0.05), and significant differences in beta diversity between the two groups (p < 0.001). The phyla Firmicutes and Actinobacteriota, as well as the genera Ralstonia and Afipia, were relatively more abundant in the ADHD group. The phylum Proteobacteria and the genera Corynebacterium and Peptoniphilus were more abundant in the control group. Notably, the genus Afipia exhibited significant correlations with the Child Behavior Checklist Attention Problems score and DSM-oriented ADHD subscale. This study is the first to propose the urine microbiome as a potential biomarker for pediatric ADHD.
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Aortic surgery is one of the most challenging types of surgeries, which is possibly related to cognitive sequelae. We aimed to investigate the changes in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) associated with intraoperative circulatory arrest (CA) in aortic surgery, exploring the relationship between the altered connectivity and postoperative cognitive functions. Thirty-eight patients participated in this study (14 with CA, 24 without). Functional magnetic resonance imaging was scanned on the fifth day after surgery or after the resolution of delirium if it was developed. We assessed the differences in the development of postoperative cognitive changes and rsFC between patients with and without CA. The occurrence of postoperative delirium and postoperative cognitive dysfunction was not significantly different between the patients with and without the application of CA. However, patients with CA showed increased in posterior cingulate cortex-based connectivity with the right superior temporal gyrus, right precuneus, and right hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex-based connectivity with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The application of moderate hypothermic CA with unilateral antegrade cerebral perfusion is unlikely to affect aspects of postoperative cognitive changes, whereas it may lead to increased rsFC of the default mode network at a subclinical level following acute brain insults.