First report of Colletotrichum karstii causing anthracnose on soybean in China.

Soybean (Glycine max) is a significant grain and oil crop. Among the various challenges faced by soybean cultivation, anthracnose stands out as one of the most prevalent diseases. In June 2023, anthracnose symptoms on leaves characterized by irregular disease spots featuring gray-white centers and brown edges, along with many small black dots on their surface, were observed in a 20-hectare soybean (variety "Liu Yuehuang") field located in Luodian County (25°40'20″ N, 106°53'50″ E, 575 m), Guizhou Province, China. Around 30% of the 300 soybean plants examined were symptomatic, and a total of ten leaves were collected. Fragments (5×5 mm) from the edge of disease spots were sheared and surface-sterilized with 3% sodium hypochlorite and 75% ethanol for 60 s and 30 s, respectively. They were then flushed twice with sterile water, dried using sterile filter papers, finally placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 28°C for two days. In total, 11 isolates with identical morphological characteristics were obtained. The colonies grown with white aerial mycelia on their surface; conidia were cylindrical, both ends are rounded, aseptate, hyaline, 11.0-14.0 (12.5) × 4.5-6.0 (5.0) µm (n = 30); appressoria were nearly ovoid, brown to black, 8.5-10.5 (9.5) × 5.5-7.5 (6.0) µm (n = 30). The morphological characteristics closely resembled the description of C. karstii (Damm et al., 2012). To further identify the isolates, chitin synthase (CHS-1), actin (ACT), beta-tubulin (TUB2), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) loci were amplified by using CHS-79F/CHS-345R, ACT-512F/ACT-783R (Carbone and Kohn, 1999), Bt2F/Bt2R (Woudenberg et al., 2009), GDF/GDR (Guerber et al., 2003) and ITS1/ITS4 (White et al., 1990) PCR primers, respectively. The BLAST results showed that the sequences of two representative strains, LD 2023048-1 and LD 2023048-2, were highly similar to those of strain C. karstii CGMCC3.14194 (ITS: OR342620 (99%) and OR342621 (99%) with HM585409, ACT: OR412337 (97%) and OR423341 (100%) with HM581995, CHS-1: OR423344 (99%,) and OR423345 (100%) with HM582023, GAPDH: OR423348 (98%) and OR423349 (98%) with HM585391, and TUB: OR423352 (99%) and OR423353 (99%) with HM585428). The phylogenetic tree combined five sequences showed that the two strains clustered into a branch of C. karstii CGMCC3.14194 with high support values. Thirty-day-old soybean plants (n = 10) (variety Liu Yuehuang) were separately sprayed with 1 × 105 spore suspensions/mL of the two strains by spray method, and plants sprayed with sterile distilled water were used as the negative control (n = 5). All the plants were then covered with plastic bags and cultured in the greenhouse (28℃, 80% humidity, 12 h light dark cycle). After ten days of inoculation, plants inoculated with C. karstii began to produce typical anthracnose symptoms, while the control remained asymptomatic. The confirmation of the reisolated pathogen as C. karstii was established through a comprehensive analysis of morphology and five sequencing loci. Pathogenicity tests were repeated three times. Anthracnose on soybean is caused by Colletotrichum spp. reported in China including C. truncatum (Hu et al., 2015), C. brevisporum (Shi et al., 2021) and C. fructicola (Xu et al., 2023). As far as we know, this study is the initial report of C. karstii inducing anthracnose on soybean to date, which establishes a fundamental reference for preventing and controlling this disease.

First Report of Leaf Spot on Zanthoxylum bungeanum Caused by Nigrospora sphaerica in China.

Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim., a deciduous shrub in Zanthoxylum genus of the Rutaceae family, has not only highly economical values as condiment and medicine, but also significantly ecological values in soil and water conservation. In March 2023, a typical leaf spot disease on Z. bungeanum (Variety "Xiao Qingjiao") was observed in the field with an area of 26.68 ha with 35% incidence and 25.4% disease intensity in Zhenfeng County (25°38'57.60″ N, 105°64'98.64″ E, 1,156 m), Guizhou Province, China. The symptom leaves showed as irregularly shaped necrotic lesions, brown to dark brown with black margin. 30 samples with typical symptoms were collected and cut into 0.5 cm × 0.5 cm pieces. Their surfaces were disinfected with 1.5% NaClO for 2 min followed by 75% ethanol for 35 s, rinsed three times with sterile distilled water, finally incubated on PDA plates at 27°C. A total of 36 isolates were obtained through single-spore cultivation. The colonies on PDA were fluffy with abundant aerial mycelia and covered the whole plates (diameter 90 mm) in 7 days. Conidia were brown to black, single-celled, smooth, spherical or oblate, 12.0-17.0 × 12.5-18.5 µm (av. = 14.5 × 15.5 µm, n = 50) and grew on a colorless transparent vesicle at the apical cell of conidiophores. The morphological characteristics were similar with N. sphaerica (Wang et al. 2017). The 5.8S DNA (ITS), translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF1-α) and ß-tubulin (TUB2) genes were amplified with primers ITS4/ITS5, EF1-728F/EF2, and BT2A/BT2B, respectively (White et al. 1990; Carbone and Kohn 1999, O'Donnell et al. 1998; Glass and Donaldson 1995). The ITS, TEF1-α and TUB2 sequences of two randomly selected isolates, GUCC 21-187 and GUCC 21-235, had > 99% nucleotide identities (ITS: 99.60% (504/506 bp, OR646539) and 99.61% (506/508 bp, OR640300); TEF: 100% (470/470 bp, OR654285) and 100.00% (471/471 bp, OR654286); TUB: 100.00% (408/408 bp, OR661269) and 99.52% (411/413 bp, OR661270), respectively) with those sequences of N. sphaerica (LC 7294) in GenBank (KX985932, KY019397 and KY019602, respectively). The phylogenetic tree based on sequences of ITS, TEF1-α and TUB2 indicated that GUCC 21-187 and GUCC 21-235 were most closely related to N. sphaerica (LC 7294), supported with 100%/100%/1 bootstraps. Based on morphological characteristics and molecular datasets analyses, the isolates were identified as N. sphaerica. 10 healthy 2-years-old Z. bungeanum plants were sprayed with conidial suspensions (1 × 106 conidia/mL) of the isolates and the other 5ere sprayed with sterile water as the controls, all the treated plants were cultivated in a glasshouse at 25°C under 85% relative humidity. Typical leaf spot symptoms appeared on inoculated Z. bungeanum plants after 8 days, while the control plants remained asymptomatic. N. sphaerica was re-isolated from the lesions of inoculated plants and identified by morphological and molecular identification. Pathogenicity test was performed three times with analogous results, fulfilling Koch's postulates. N. sphaerica had been reported as a common pathogen on a variety of plants including sugarcane, kiwifruit and blueberry (Cui et al. 2018; Chen et al. 2016; Wright et al. 2008). To our knowledge, this is the first report of leaf spot disease caused by N. sphaerica on Z. bungeanum in China. Our report would be helpful to Z. bungeanum growers to recognize this leaf spot disease, and corresponding measures could be taken to minimize or avoid the economic losses caused by it.

High NA and polarization-insensitive ultra-broadband achromatic metalens from 500 to 1050†nm for multicolor two-photon endomicroscopy imaging.

Multicolor two-photon endomicroscopy has become a highly competitive tool for functional imaging in biomedical researches. However, to make the imaging system miniature and applicable for freely behaving animal brain activity, metalenses have received much attention in compact imaging systems. For high resolution multicolor imaging and maximizing fluorescence collection, there is a challenge metalenses faced to achieve large numerical aperture (NA) and focus the NIR excitation and VIS emission lights of multiple fluorophores to the same distance simultaneously because of the limitation of the group delay range of the meta-units. In this paper, we proposed a high NA and polarization-insensitive ultra-broadband achromatic metalens specifically for achromatically focusing the excitation and emission light of multiple fluorophores commonly used in neuroscience studies. TiO2 and Si meta-unit libraries composed of heights, widths and the corresponding phase and group delay were constructed, and the optimal meta-units were selected by particle swarm optimization algorithm to engineer the dispersion of metalens in the VIS band and NIR band, respectively. Combining dispersion engineering with spatial multiplexing, the proposed metalens achieved the maximal effective NA up to 0.8 and large achromatic bandwidth ranging from 500 nm to 1050 nm, which exhibited the coefficient of variation of focal lengths was only 3.41%. The proposed achromatic metalens could successfully achromatically focus different fluorescence with any polarization, which was suitable for most fluorophores. Our results firmly establish that the proposed metalens can open the door to high resolution and minimally invasive multicolor two-photon functional imaging in intravital deep brain.

The power of (surreptitiously) mentioning your mentor's name: Subliminal priming of mentor's name modulates N170 responses to blurred faces.

Using the event-related potentials (ERPs) technique and subliminal priming paradigm, the present study examined the influence of mentioning a mentor's name on graduate students. Fifty-eight graduate students were subliminally primed by mentor and stranger names before making pressure judgments of a series of unrelated blurred facial photos with neutral emotion. The face-sensitive N170 components were analyzed according to the pressure judgment × name prime conditions. The results showed that relative to stranger names, subliminal priming of mentor's name could modulate students' N170 reactions during facial processing. Specifically, the mentor-name priming attenuated N170 amplitudes for high-pressure judgment trials on the right hemisphere but heightened the overall N170 responses on the left hemisphere. Behavioral results also showed that the mentor-name priming slowed students' reaction time during pressure judgments; in addition, students' attitudes towards mentors were correlated with N170 amplitudes on high-pressure judgment conditions. These findings provided neuroscientific evidence demonstrating the psychological significance of mentors to graduate students. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.

First Report of Leaf Spot Disease Associated with Faba Bean (Vicia faba) Caused by Pestalotiopsis rosea in China.

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is a cool-season legume crop, planted worldwide as an essential source of protein-rich foods, vegetables, and animal feeds. In China, the total cultivated area of faba bean in 2019 was 839,618 square hectometers (hm2) and the production was 1,740,945 tons (t) (Ji et al. 2022). In May 2021, a leaf spot disease on faba bean plants with about 80% disease incidence was observed in a 0.3 ha commercial field located at Zunyi City (27°31'43.80″ N, 106°23'34.27″ E), Guizhou Province, China. The leaves of the early affected plants appeared circular dark brown spots, which then rapidly develop into large irregular shaped lesions if conditions remain favorable. Severe infection can result in extensive defoliation of plants and lesions on pods. Symptomatic leaves were collected and cut into small pieces, surface sterilized with 75% ethanol for 30 s followed by 2% NaClO for 1 min, rinsed with sterile distilled water three times, and incubated on PDA plates amended with streptomycin sulfate (0.5 mg/L) at 25°C for 2-4 days. Two purified cultures were obtained through single-spore culture. Colonies on PDA attaining 62 mm diam after 2 weeks, white or pale red, edge undulate, with dense aerial mycelium on the surface, fruiting bodies black to reddish brown. Conidia fusoid to ellipsoid, 4-septate, straight to slightly curved, 18.5-22 × 6-7 µm (av. = 20 × 7 µm, n = 30); basal cell obconic, hyaline, 3.5-5 µm long, with a single appendage, 2.5-6 µm; three median cells doliiform, verruculose, olivaceous with slightly red (second cell from base 4-5 µm long; third cell 4.5-5.5 µm long; fourth cell 3-5.5 µm long); apical cell conical, hyaline, 2.5-4 µm long, with 1-3 tubular appendages, 13-22.5 µm long. The morphological characters of our studied specimens fit well with Pestalotiopsis rosea (Maharachchikumbura et al. 2012). For molecular identification, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, partial ß-tubulin (tub2) and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1-α) genes were amplified and sequenced using primer pairs ITS5/ITS4 (White et al. 1990), T1/Bt-2b (Glass and Donaldson 1995) and EF1-728F/EF-2 (Carbone and Kohn 1999). The DNA sequences of two isolates GUCC 195257 (OP364052, OP391714, OP391713) and GUCC 195258 (OP364053, OP391716, OP391715) were deposited in GenBank. The BLAST searches revealed that these sequences had 99% (537/539 bp), 100% (453/453 bp), 99% (591/593 bp), 99% (537/539 bp), 100% (453/453 bp) and 99% (574/576 bp) nucleotide identity to the ex-type strain of P. rosea (JX399005, JX399036, JX399069), respectively. In addition, multi-locus phylogenetic analysis showed that both isolates clustered with P. rosea with full statistical support. The phylogenetic relationship of Pestalotiopsis species supported the identification of our isolates as P. rosea. In the pathogenicity test, the leaves of ten healthy 2-week-old faba bean plants were spray inoculated with a conidial suspension (1 × 106 conidia/ml) of the two isolates. Another set of five plants that were sprayed with sterilized distilled water served as the controls. Treated plants were kept at 25°C in a greenhouse with a photoperiod of 12 h and 70% relative humidity. After one week, all inoculated leaves showed symptoms similar to those of the infected faba bean observed in the field, whereas controls were symptomless. The pathogenicity test was performed twice with similar results. The fungus was reisolated from the inoculated plants and identified as P. rosea by morphological and molecular evidence, thus confirming Koch's postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. rosea causing leaf spot on faba bean in the world. Pestalotiopsis species are well-known phytopathogens that can cause a variety of diseases, including leaf spots, chlorosis, and various postharvest (Wang et al. 2019). The results of this study not only contribute to accurately identify this disease in the fields of faba bean production, but also provide an important reference for developing specific control measures.

An ultra-high vacuum system for fabricating clean two-dimensional material devices.

High mobility electron gases confined at material interfaces have been a venue for major discoveries in condensed matter physics. Ultra-high vacuum (UHV) technologies played a key role in creating such high-quality interfaces. The advent of two-dimensional (2D) materials brought new opportunities to explore exotic physics in flat lands. UHV technologies may once again revolutionize research in low dimensions by facilitating the construction of ultra-clean interfaces with a wide variety of 2D materials. Here, we describe the design and operation of a UHV 2D material device fabrication system, in which the entire fabrication process is performed under pressure lower than 5 × 10-10 mbar. Specifically, the UHV system enables the exfoliation of atomically clean 2D materials. Subsequent in situ assembly of van der Waals heterostructures produces high-quality interfaces that are free of contamination. We demonstrate functionalities of this system through exemplary fabrication of various 2D materials and their heterostructures.

Continuous epitaxy of single-crystal graphite films by isothermal carbon diffusion through nickel.

Multilayer van der Waals (vdW) film materials have attracted extensive interest from the perspective of both fundamental research1-3 and technology4-7. However, the synthesis of large, thick, single-crystal vdW materials remains a great challenge because the lack of out-of-plane chemical bonds weakens the epitaxial relationship between neighbouring layers8-31. Here we report the continuous epitaxial growth of single-crystal graphite films with thickness up to 100,000 layers on high-index, single-crystal nickel (Ni) foils. Our epitaxial graphite films demonstrate high single crystallinity, including an ultra-flat surface, centimetre-size single-crystal domains and a perfect AB-stacking structure. The exfoliated graphene shows excellent physical properties, such as a high thermal conductivity of ~2,880 W m-1 K-1, intrinsic Young's modulus of ~1.0 TPa and low doping density of ~2.2 × 1010 cm-2. The growth of each single-crystal graphene layer is realized by step edge-guided epitaxy on a high-index Ni surface, and continuous growth is enabled by the isothermal dissolution-diffusion-precipitation of carbon atoms driven by a chemical potential gradient between the two Ni surfaces. The isothermal growth enables the layers to grow at optimal conditions, without stacking disorders or stress gradients in the final graphite. Our findings provide a facile and scalable avenue for the synthesis of high-quality, thick vdW films for various applications.

A rare case of endometrial polyp complicated with uterine inversion: A case report and clinical management.

Uterine inversion is a rare disease that is particularly uncommon among non-puerperal women. Herein we reported the only case of uterine inversion known to us that was caused by the endometrial thickening and changes in the polypoid lesion in early puberty. The patient was admitted to our hospital because of massive vaginal bleeding, abdominal pain, and a protruding mass from the vagina. We obtained the patient history by collecting the results of various examinations (including magnetic resonance imaging and color Doppler ultrasound), accurate diagnosis was performed, and a reasonable treatment protocol was developed. She was subjected to laparoscopic uterine-sparing surgery to preserve her fertility. Uterine inversion is a rare disease, and early diagnosis and selection of appropriate treatment options are essential for patients with fertility requirements.

hsa_circ_0119412 overexpression promotes cervical cancer progression by targeting miR-217 to upregulate anterior gradient 2.

BACKGROUND: Mounting evidence summarizes that circRNA is closely implicated in the development of numerous cancers. Our study aimed to investigate the role of circ_0119412 whose function was not explored in cervical cancer. METHODS: RT-qPCR analysis was utilized for the expression analysis of circ_0119412, miR-217, and anterior gradient 2 (AGR2). CCK-8 assay, transwell assay, and MTT assay were employed to assess cell proliferation, migration, and adhesion, respectively. Animal study was performed to check the role of circ_0119412 in vivo. Bioinformatics analysis was applied to predict the downstream targets of circ_0119412. RIP assay was utilized to examine miRNAs potentially bound by circ_0119412. The interplays between miR-217 and circ_0119412 or AGR2 were validated by dual-luciferase reporter assay. RESULTS: circ_0119412 expression was highly enhanced in cervical tumor tissues and cancer cells. circ_0119412 overexpression aggravated cervical cancer cell proliferation, migration, and adhesion, and its overexpression was also conducive to tumor formation and growth in animal models. AGR2 was upregulated in cervical cancer by the public bioinformatics data. circ_0119412 bound to miR-217, and miR-217 bound to AGR 3'UTR. The promoting effects of circ_0119412 overexpression on cancer cell malignant phenotypes were reversed by miR-217 enrichment. In addition, increased expression of miR-217 suppressed AGR2 expression, thus weakening the functional effects of AGR2. CONCLUSION: circ_0119412 functioned as an oncogenic driver to promote the malignant development of cervical cancer by targeting the miR-217/AGR2 pathway.

Multigene Phylogeny, Diversity and Antimicrobial Potential of Endophytic Sordariomycetes From Rosa roxburghii.

Rosa roxburghii Tratt. is widely applied in food, cosmetics, and traditional medicine, and has been demonstrated to possess diverse bioactivities. Plant endophytic fungi are important microbial resources with great potential for application in many fields. They not only establish mutualistic symbiosis with host plants but also produce a variety of bioactive compounds. Therefore, in the present study, endophytic fungi were isolated from R. roxburghii, the diversity and antimicrobial activities were evaluated. As a result, 242 strains of endophytic Sordariomycetes were successfully isolated. Multigene phylogenetic analyses showed that these isolates included eight orders, 19 families, 33 genera. The dominant genera were Diaporthe (31.4%), Fusarium (14.4%), Chaetomium (7.9%), Dactylonectria (7.0%), Graphium (4.5%), Colletotrichum (4.1%), and Clonostachys (4.1%). For different tissues of R. roxburghii, alpha diversity analysis revealed that the diversity of fungal communities decreased in the order of root, fruit, stem, flower, leaf, and seed, and Clonostachys and Dactylonectria exhibited obvious tissue specificity. Meanwhile, functional annotation of 33 genera indicated that some fungi have multitrophic lifestyles combining endophytic, pathogenic, and saprophytic behavior. Additionally, antimicrobial activities of endophytic Sordariomycetes against Lasiodiplodia theobromae, Botryosphaeria dothidea, Colletotrichum capsici, Pyricularia oryzae, Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium oxysporum, Pseudomonas syringae, Pantoea agglomerans, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were screened. Dual culture test assays showed that there were 40 different endophytic species with strong inhibition of at least one or moderate inhibition of two or more against the 12 tested strains. The results from the filter paper diffusion method suggested that extracellular metabolites may be more advantageous than intracellular metabolites in the development of antimicrobial agents. Eleven isolates with good activities were screened. In particular, Hypomontagnella monticulosa HGUP194009 and Nigrospora sphaerica HGUP191020 have shown promise in both broad-spectrum and intensity. Finally, some fungi that commonly cause disease have been observed to have beneficial biological activities as endophytic fungi. In conclusion, this study showed the species composition, alpha diversity, and lifestyle diversity of endophytic Sordariomycetes from R. roxburghii and demonstrated these isolates are potential sources for exploring antimicrobial agents.

Single-layer multitasking vortex-metalens for ultra-compact two-photon excitation STED endomicroscopy imaging.

With the novel capabilities of engineering the optical wavefront at the nanoscale, the dielectric metalens has been utilized for fluorescence microscopy imaging system. However, the main technical difficulty is how to realize the achromatic focusing and light modulation simultaneously by a single-layer metalens in the two-photon excitation STED (TPE-STED) endomicroscopy imaging system. Herein, by combining the spatial multiplexing technology and vortex phase modulation, a single-layer multitasking vortex-metalens as a miniature microscopy objective on the end of fiber was proposed. The multitasking vortex-metalens with 36-sectors interleaving (diameter of 100 µm) could focus the excitation beam (1050 nm) and depletion beam (599 nm) to the same focal distance, modulate a doughnut-shaped depletion spot with vortex phase and reshape the focal spots to further make improvement in the quality and symmetry. According to the TPE-STED theory, a symmetrical effective fluorescent spot with the lateral resolution of 30 nm was obtained by the proposed metalens. Thus, with the advantage of ultra-compact and lightweight, we prospect that the subminiature multitasking metalens will help guide future developments in high-performance metalenses toward high-resolution and real-time images for deep biological tissue in vivo and enable scientific high-end miniature endomicroscopy imaging system.

Ascodesmisrosicola sp. nov. and Talaromycesrosarhiza sp. nov., two endophytes from Rosaroxburghii in China.

BACKGROUND: Rosaroxburghii Tratt., a deciduous shrub of the family Rosaceae, is usually used as food and medicinal materials and also cultivated as an ornamental. Plant endophytic fungi are a large class of microbial resources not fully researched, with great potential applications. Two strains of Ascodesmis and Talaromyces were isolated during a survey of biodiversity on endophytic fungi of R.roxburghii in China. Multigene phylogenetic analyses showed that each of the two fungi formed a distinct lineage and separated from known congeneric species and they are proposed as two novel taxa. NEW INFORMATION: Ascodesmisrosicola sp. nov. usually has one or two conspicuous simple or branched ridges extending to the majority of the ascospore surface and remarkably small asci, distinguishing it from the previously-described species in the genus Ascodesmis. Talaromycesrosarhiza sp. nov., of the section Talaromyces, is closely related to T.francoae. It differs from the latter by having both monoverticillate and biverticillate conidiophores, while those of T.francoae are biverticillate. Both novel endophytes are illustrated and described.

Psychological Typhoon Eye Effect During the COVID-19 Outbreak.

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei, has brought serious consequences to the lives and mental health of people and has induced psychological stress and affected behavior. Methods: This study used self-designed questionnaires and SPSS to analyze the psychological and behavioral responses of people in different regions during the COVID-19 pandemic and to check for the presence of "psychological typhoon eye" (PTE) effects. The questionnaires adopted three measurement subscales, namely, the risk cognitive subscale, stress response subscale, and behavioral response subscale, and these were administered online (www.wjx.cn) to investigate the psychological and behavioral conduct of respondents from three areas that have been affected by COVID-19 to varying degrees. Exploratory factor analysis and principal component analysis were conducted to explore the factorial structure of these subscales, and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to explore the structural validity of the questionnaires. The analysis results were used to build a revised 18-item questionnaire which validity was evaluated via ANOVA and LSD. Results: Results confirm the presence of PTE in the research areas during the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak and highlight some significant differences in the cognition and emotions of the residents in these areas. PTE affected the cognition, emotions, and cognitive and emotional responses of the respondents but did not affect their behavioral responses. Conclusion: The findings underscore the urgency of providing sustainable mental health care services across different areas during the COVID-19 outbreak. The residents of those areas worst hit by the pandemic, who may not have taken the situation seriously, require emotional guidance the most. Meanwhile, the residents of other areas, who showed the most negative psychological reactions to the pandemic, require a sense of security, a timely "disconnection" from negative information, an accurate cognition of stress, and an acceptance of self-responses.

Factors Influencing Mental Health of Medical Workers During the COVID-19 Outbreak.

Background: Since the outbreak of COVID-19, physical and psychological harm has been spreading across the global population alongside the spread of the virus. Currently, the novel coronavirus has spread to most countries in the world, and its impact on the public is also increasing. As a high-risk group in direct contact with the virus, medical workers should be monitored, and their mental health deserves extensive attention. The aim of this study was to explore the mental health of medical workers facing the novel coronavirus and the main factors affecting it. Methods: The present cross-sectional study including 2,100 eligible individuals from 1,050 hospitals in China was conducted through the network platform powered by www.wjx.cn, a platform providing functions equivalent to Amazon Mechanical Turk. We used a self-designed questionnaire to collect demographic information and data on mental states, including gender, age (years), educational level, job rank, body and mind reaction, cognition of risk, and the judgment of the epidemic situation. Independent samples t-tests and one-way (ANOVA) analysis were carried out to compare the differences in the mental reactions according to the demographic and psychological states of the participants. Results: There were 502 males (23.9%) and 1,598 females (76.1%). The participants reported feeling calm (39.1%), tense (63.0%), scared (31.4%), angry (18.8%), sad (49.0%), afraid (34.7%), optimistic (5.1%), impressed (65.0%), and confident (31.1%) during the epidemic. At the same time, the psychological stress responses of medical staff were significantly different according to the levels of exposure in their environments, duration and personal experience. Conclusions: Prolonged exposure to the virus and intense work are detrimental to the mental health of medical care personnel. It is necessary to adjust work conditions and intensity according to workers' mental state flexibly and systematically.

Excitation and emission dual-wavelength confocal metalens designed directly in the biological tissue environment for two-photon micro-endoscopy.

With the advantages of completely controlling the phase, amplitude, and polarization in subwavelength range, metalenses have drawn intensive attentions in high resolution two-photon micro-endoscopic fluorescence imaging system. However, chromatic dispersion and severe scattering of biological tissue significantly reduce excitation-collection efficiency in the traditional two-photon imaging system based on traditional metalenses designed in the air background. Here, an excitation and emission dual-wavelength confocal and polarization-insensitive metalens designed in the biological tissue environment was proposed by adopting the composite embedding structure and spatial multiplexing approach. The metalens with numerical aperture (NA) of 0.895 can focus the excitation (915 nm) and emission (510 nm) beams to the same focal spot in the mouse cortex. According to the theoretical simulation of two-photon fluorescence imaging, the lateral resolution of the collected fluorescent spots via the proposed metalens can be up to 0.42 µm. Compared to the metalens designed in the air environment, the collection efficiency of fluorescent spot is improved from 5.92% to 14.60%. Our investigation has opened a new window of high resolution and minimally invasive imaging in deep regions of biological tissues.

Emotional "inflection point" in public health emergencies with the 2019 new coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) in China.

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) in Wuhan, Hubei, has caused very serious consequences and severely affected people's lives and mental health. The outbreak will cause bad emotions such as tension, anxiety, fear, and so on. College students who have returned home from school face infection, isolation, and delay in starting school, and thus, their emotional stress should be observed. METHODS: This study used self-designed questionnaires and artificial intelligence (AI) to assess and analyze the emotional state of over 30,000 college students during the outbreak period in January (T1) and home quarantine in February (T2). This survey used online questionnaire (www.wjx.cn) to investigate the emotion information of college students. RESULTS: In the T1 survey, the "Typhoon Eye Effect" appeared. College students in Hubei are calmer than those outside Hubei in T1. However, in T2, an emotional "infection point" appeared, there was an "Exposure Effect", the negative emotions of students in Hubei largely increased and became higher than students outside Hubei. CONCLUSION: This survey found that there is an emotional "infection point" in February among college students, especially in the Hubei area. College students in Hubei are calmer than those outside Hubei in T1. In contrast, college students in Hubei were more nervous and scared than those outside Hubei in T2. This epidemic has caused the students to experience significant pressure and negative emotions. Therefore, universities and society should pay attention to their emotional adjustment, there are some suggestions such as establish the mental health organizations, test students' emotion status regularly.

Psychological stress of medical staffs during outbreak of COVID-19 and adjustment strategy.

COVID-19 has a significant impact on public health and poses a challenge to medical staffs, especially to front-line medical staffs who are exposed to and in direct contact with patients. To understand the psychological stress status of medical staffs during the outbreak of COVID-19, random sample questionnaire survey was conducted among 2110 medical staffs and 2158 college students in all provinces of China through a questionnaire, which was compiled and completed through the Questionnaire Star platform relying on Wechat, QQ, and other social software. The differences in psychological stress status of different groups were compared through the analysis of the questionnaire. Results revealed that in all provinces of China, medical staffs scored significantly higher on all items of psychological stress than college students (P < .001). In Wuhan, medical staffs scored significantly higher than college students in all items of psychological stress (P < .001). While among medical staffs, the group in Wuhan area scored significantly higher than the group outside Wuhan on the following items: "Thought of being in danger," "The possibility of self-illness," "Worrying about family infection" (P < .05), "Poor sleep quality," "Needing psychological guidance," and "Worrying about being infected" (P < .01) in the Psychological Stress Questionnaire, but on the item "Confidence in the victory of the epidemic," the group in Wuhan area scored significantly lower than the group outside Wuhan (P < .05). The emotion, cognition, physical, and mental response of front-line medical staff showed obvious "exposure effect", which calls for a psychological crisis intervention strategy that can be helpful.

Supramolecular Hexagonal Platelet Assemblies with Uniform and Precisely-Controlled Dimensions.

Geometric structures are commonly encountered in natural and designed systems. However, the bottom-up fabrication of regular geometric assemblies with precise dimensional control, especially from soft materials, poses an outstanding challenge in contemporary materials science and chemistry. Herein, we present a general method for the preparation of colloidally stable, hexagonal platelets via the formation of crystalline inclusion complexes of tris-o-phenylenedioxycyclotriphosphazene and block copolymers bearing interactive blocks. Dictated by the screw dislocation growth of inclusion complexes, uniform hexagonal platelets with precisely controllable dimensions can be prepared. This supramolecular assembly approach is further utilized to produce concentric hexagonal platelets via stepwise seeded growth from various inclusion complexes.

Modulation of transcranial focusing thermal deposition in nonlinear HIFU brain surgery by numerical simulation.

As the skull induces strong aberrations in phase and amplitude during transcranial treatment of brain surgery, high-intensity focused ultrasound suffers degradation in beam shape and deposits significant heat in the skull which may cause thermal damage to the bone and surrounding tissue. The goal of this study is to optimize the transcranial pressure and thermal fields to reduce thermal damage to the skull and simultaneously concentrate more energy in the focal region and make its size controllable during transcranial brain tumor treatment by modulating the excitation signals of the transducer array (including the phase and amplitude) and superposing the signals used to reduce peak pressure in the skull. A 3D numerical model was developed based on the reconstructed images from high-resolution CT scans of a human skull and a 64-element phased array to simulate acoustic propagation and thermal behavior calculated by the finite-difference time domain method. The simulation showed that more energy was focused at the setting target with little temperature elevation in the skull after correcting phase and amplitude and reducing peak pressure in the skull; through modulating the input intensity of arrays, the volume of focal regions located off-axis could be made equal to the volume achieved with on-axis focusing.