The relationship between autistic traits and the stress of social isolation: Development of an explanatory model.

Background: Social isolation can be particularly challenging for individuals with high autistic traits who struggle with social interactions. The COVID-19 pandemic led to increased isolation, exacerbating stress for those who may have difficulty in connecting with others. This study aimed to explore the relationship between autistic traits and stress associated with social isolation. Methods: A sample of 1597 Chinese adults completed measures of autistic traits, the stress of social isolation, psychological inflexibility and core self-evaluation, during an epidemic prevention and control period of COVID-19 in Chongqing, China. Measures included the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, Coronavirus Stress Measure, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II, and Core Self-Evaluation Scale. Results: Autistic traits were positively correlated with the stress of social isolation, which was mediated by the chain effect of core self-evaluation and psychological inflexibility. individuals with high autistic traits reported significantly higher stress than individuals with low autistic traits. Limitations: This was a cross-sectional study, which limits causal inference. In addition, data were self-reported, which may cause methodological effects. Finally, this study was conducted during China's quarantine policy and external validation of the findings is required. Conclusions: Autistic traits are positively associated with the stress of social isolation. Autistic traits affected core self-evaluation first, and psychological inflexibility subsequently, leading to the stress of social isolation. individuals with high autistic traits tended to experience higher levels of stress during pandemic quarantines. The findings provide useful evidence for developing interventions and implementing preventive measures to reduce stress in individuals with high autistic traits and autism spectrum disorder.

The effect of top-down attention on empathy fatigue.

Prolonged exposure to others' suffering can lead to empathy fatigue, especially when individuals struggle to effectively regulate their empathic capacity. Shifting active attention away from emotional components toward cognitive components of others' suffering is an effective strategy for mitigating empathy fatigue. This research investigated how top-down attentional manipulation modulates empathy fatigue in both auditory (Study 1) and visual (Study 2) modalities. Participants completed two tasks in both studies: (i) the attention to cognitive empathy task (A-C task) and (ii) the attention to emotional empathy task (A-E task). Each task included three blocks (Time Block 1, Time Block 2, and Time Block 3) designed to induce empathy fatigue. Study 1 revealed that the A-C task reduced empathy fatigue and N1 amplitudes than the A-E task in Time Block 3, indicating that attention to cognitive empathy might decrease auditory empathy fatigue. Study 2 indicates that the A-C task caused a longer N2 latency than the A-E task, signifying a decelerated emotional empathic response when attention was on cognitive empathy in the visual modality. Overall, prioritizing cognitive empathy seems to conserve mental resources and reduce empathy fatigue. This research documented the relationship between top-down attention and empathy fatigue and the possible neural mechanism.

Empathy for pain in individuals with autistic traits during observation of static and dynamic stimuli.

Previous studies have reported that individuals with autistic traits, like those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), may have impaired empathic responses when observing static stimuli of others' pain. However, it remains unclear whether individuals with autistic traits exhibit impaired empathy for pain in response to dynamic stimuli. The present study addressed this question by recruiting 529 individuals whose autistic traits were assessed using the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) questionnaire. Thirty participants who scored within the top 10% and bottom 10% on the AQ were selected into High-AQ and Low-AQ groups, respectively. This study employed painful whole-body action pictures and videos as static and dynamic stimuli. Both groups were instructed to judge whether the models in the stimuli were experiencing pain, and their reaction times, accuracy and event-related potential (ERP) data were recorded. Results showed that the P2 amplitudes were larger in the High-AQ group than in the Low-AQ group when viewing painful static stimuli, while no difference between the two groups was found when viewing painful dynamic stimuli. These results suggest that autistic traits influenced the emotional processing of others' pain in response to static stimuli.

Combining eDNA and morphological approaches to reveal the impacts of long-term discharges of shale gas wastewaters on receiving waters.

The potential threats of shale gas wastewater discharges to receiving waters is of great concern. In this study, chemical analyses and biomonitoring were performed three times in a small river that received treated wastewater over a two-year period. The results of chemical analyses showed that the concentrations of chloride, conductivity, barium, and strontium increased at the discharge site, but their concentrations decreased considerably farther downstream (≥500 m). The concentrations of toxic organic compounds (16 US EPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and 6 priority phthalates), trace metals (strontium, arsenic, zinc, copper, chromium, lead, cadmium, nickel, and neodymium), and natural radionuclides (40K, 238U, 226Ra, and 232Th) were comparable to the corresponding background values or did not exhibit obvious accumulation in sediments with continued discharge. Morphological and environmental DNA approaches were used to reveal the potential effects of wastewater discharges on aquatic ecosystems. The results showed that the community structure of benthic invertebrates was not altered by the long-term discharges of shale gas wastewaters. However, the biodiversity indices (richness and Shannon) from the two approaches showed inconsistencies, which were caused by multiple reasons, and that substrates had a strong influence on the morphological biodiversity indices. A multimetric index was proposed to further analyze morphological and environmental DNA data, and the results showed no significant difference between the upstream and downstream sites. Generally, the chemical and biological results both demonstrated that the discharges of shale gas wastewaters had limited impacts on river ecosystems within two years.

Characterization of microbial communities and functions in shale gas wastewaters and sludge: Implications for pretreatment.

As hydraulic fracturing (HF) practices keep expanding in China, a comparative understanding of biological characteristics of flowback and produced waters (FPW) and sludge in impoundments for FPW reserve will help propose appropriate treatment strategies. Therefore, in this study, the microbial communities and functions in impoundments that collected wastewaters from dozens of wells were characterized. The results showed that microbial richness and diversity were significantly increased in sludge compared with those in FPW. The vast majority of microorganisms found in FPW and sludge are organic degraders, providing the possibility of using these indigenous microorganisms to biodegrade organic compounds. Our laboratory findings first show that wastewater pretreatment using these microorganisms was effective, and organic compounds in FPW from different shale formations were removed by 35-68% within 72 h in a wide temperature range (8 - 30 â„ƒ). Meanwhile, highly toxic compounds such as phthalate esters (PAEs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and petroleum hydrocarbons were effectively eliminated in reactors. The main microorganisms, key functional genes, and putative pathways for alkanes, PAHs, and PAEs degradation were also identified.

Risk assessment of pollutants in flowback and produced waters and sludge in impoundments.

Due to the growing hydraulic fracturing (HF) practices in China, the environmental risks of pollutants in flowback and produced waters (FPW) and sludge in impoundments for FPW reserves have drawn increasing attention. In this context, we first characterized the comparative geochemical characteristics of the FPW and the sludge in impoundments that collected FPW from 75 shale gas wells, and then the risks associated with the pollutants were assessed. The results demonstrated that four organic compounds detected in the FPW, naphthalene, acenaphthene, dibutyl phthalate, and bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, were potential threats to surface waters. The concentrations of trace metals (copper, cadmium, manganese, chromium, nickel, zinc, arsenic, and lead) in the FPW and sludge were low; however, those of iron, barium, and strontium were high. The accumulation of chromium, nickel, zinc, and lead in the sludge became more evident as the depth increased. The environmental risks from heavy metals in the one-year precipitated sludge were comparable to those reported in the environment. However, the radium equivalent activities were 10-41 times higher than the recommended value for human health safety, indicating potential radiation risks. Although hydrophobic organic compounds, such as high-molecular-weight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phthalate esters (PAEs), benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylene (BTEX), tended to accumulate in the sludge, their environmental risks were within tolerable ranges after proper treatment. Multiple antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), such as those for macrolide, lincosamide, streptogramin (MLS), tetracycline, and multidrug resistances, were detected in the shale gas wastewaters and sludge. Therefore, the environmental risks of these emerging pollutants upon being discharged or leaked into surface waters require further attention.

Gas Leak Location Detection Based on Data Fusion with Time Difference of Arrival and Energy Decay Using an Ultrasonic Sensor Array.

Ultrasonic gas leak location technology is based on the detection of ultrasonic waves generated by the ejection of pressured gas from leak holes in sealed containers or pipes. To obtain more accurate leak location information and determine the locations of leak holes in three-dimensional space, this paper proposes an ultrasonic leak location approach based on multi-algorithm data fusion. With the help of a planar ultrasonic sensor array, the eigenvectors of two individual algorithms, i.e., the arrival distance difference, as determined from the time difference of arrival (TDOA) location algorithm, and the ratio of arrival distances from the energy decay (ED) location algorithm, are extracted and fused to calculate the three-dimensional coordinates of leak holes. The fusion is based on an extended Kalman filter, in which the results of the individual algorithms are seen as observation values. The final system state matrix is composed of distances between the measured leak hole and the sensors. Our experiments show that, under the condition in which the pressure in the measured container is 100 kPa, and the leak hole⁻sensor distance is 800 mm, the maximum error of the calculated results based on the data fusion location algorithm is less than 20 mm, and the combined accuracy is better than those of the individual location algorithms.

[Effects of purinergic analogues on spontaneous contraction and electrical activities of gastric antral circular muscle in guinea-pig].

In order to investigate the role of non-adrenergic non-cholinergic nerves in regulating mechanical and electrical activity of gastric circular smooth muscle, the effects of ATP and its analogues on gastric motility and electrical activities were observed in guinea-pig. In organ bath system, isometric force of the circular smooth muscle of guinea-pig gastric antrum was measured. Electrical activity of the muscle was recorded by using intracellular microelectrode. Electrical and mechanical activities were recorded by chart recorder. ATP and 2-MeSATP potentiated the mechanical activity but did not affect electrical activity in gastric circular smooth muscle. ATP and 2-MeSATP-induced contraction was effectively blocked by nonselective P2y-purinoceptor antagonist, reactive-blue-2 and suramin, but ATP-induced contraction was not blocked by alpha,beta-MeATP-induced desensitization of P2x-purinoceptors. However, alpha,beta-MeATP, P2x-purinoceptor agonist, attenuated slow waves with membrane hyperpolarization and inhibited contraction. The relaxation by beta,gamma-MeATP was blocked by alpha,beta-MeATP-induced desensitization of P2x-purinoceptors. ATP-induced contraction was blocked by external calcium-free, but not by nicardipine, a L-type calcium channel blocker. Indomethacin, a nonselective cyclooxygenase inhibitor, did not block ATP-induced contraction. The results suggest that: (1) ATP- and analogues-induced contraction is mediated by P2y-purinoceptor, whereas alpha,beta-MeATP-induced relaxation by P2x-purinoceptor in guinea-pig gastric antral circular smooth muscle. (2) ATP-induced contraction is dependent on extracellular calcium, but Ca2+ entry is not mediated by L-type calcium channel. (3) Prostaglandins are not involved in ATP- and analogue-induced contraction of gastric circular smooth muscle in guinea-pigs, and alpha,beta-MeATP-induced relaxation is related to membrane hyperpolarization.

Hyposmotic membrane stretch potentiated muscarinic receptor agonist-induced depolarization of membrane potential in guinea-pig gastric myocytes.

AIM: To investigate the relationship between hyposmotic membrane stretch and muscarinic receptor agonist-induced depolarization of membrane potential in antral gastric circular myocytes of guinea-pig. METHODS: Using whole cell patch-clamp technique recorded membrane potential and current in single gastric myocytes isolated by collagenase. RESULTS: Hyposmotic membrane stretch hyperpolarized membrane potential from -60.0mV+/-1.0mV to -67.9mV+/-1.0mV. TEA (10 mmol/L), a nonselective potassium channel blocker significantly inhibited hyposmotic membrane stretch-induced hyperpolarization. After KCl in the pipette and NaCl in the external solution were replaced by CsCl to block the potassium current, hyposmotic membrane stretch depolarized the membrane potential from -60.0 mV+/-1.0mV to -44.8 mV+/-2.3mV (P<0.05), and atropine (1 micromol/L) inhibited the depolarization of the membrane potential. Muscarinic receptor agonist Carbachol depolarized membrane potential from -60.0mV+/-1.0mV to -50.3 mV+/-0.3mV (P<0.05) and hyposmotic membrane stretch potentiated the depolarization. Carbachol induced muscarinic current (I( cch )) was greatly increased by hyposmotic membrane stretch. CONCLUSION: Hyposmotic membrane stretch potentiated muscarinic receptor agonist-induced depolarization of membrane potential, which is related to hyposmotic membrane stretch-induced increase of muscarinic current.