Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. processed with porcine cardiac blood inhibited GLRX5-mediated ferroptosis alleviating cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury.

BACKGROUND: Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury (CIRI) is a destructive adverse reaction of ischemic stroke, leading to high disability and mortality rates. Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge. (Danshen, DS) processed with porcine cardiac blood (PCB-DS), a characteristic processed product, has promising anti-ischemic effects. However, the underlying mechanism of PCB-DS against CIRI remains unclear. PURPOSE: Ferroptosis is demonstrated to be involved in CIRI. The aim of this study was to explore the molecular mechanism underlying PCB-DS inhibited GLRX5-mediated ferroptosis alleviating CIRI, which was different from DS. METHODS: Quality evaluation of PCB-DS and DS was conducted by UPLC. Pharmacological activities of PCB-DS and DS against CIRI were compared using neurobehavioral scores, infarct volume, proinflammatory factors, and pathological examinations. Proteomics was employed to explore the potential specific mechanism of PCB-DS against CIRI, which was different from DS. Based on the differential protein GLRX5, ferroptosis-related iron, GSH, MDA, SOD, ROS, liperfluo, and mitochondrial morphology were analyzed. Then, the proteins of GLRX5-mediated iron-starvation response and SLC7A11/GPX4 were analyzed. Finally, OGD/R-induced SH-SY5Y cells upon GLRX5 silencing were constructed to demonstrate that PCB-DS improved CIRI by GLRX5-mediated ferroptosis. RESULTS: PCB-DS better alleviated CIRI through decreasing neurological score, reducing the infarct volume, and suppressing the release of inflammatory cytokines than DS. Proteomics suggested that PCB-DS may ameliorate CIRI by inhibiting GLRX5-mediated ferroptosis, which was different from DS. PCB-DS reversed the abnormal mitochondrial morphology, iron, GSH, MDA, SOD, ROS, and liperfluo to inhibit ferroptosis in vitro and in vivo. PCB-DS directly activated GLRX5 suppressing the iron-starvation response and downregulated the SLC7A11/GPX4 signaling pathway to inhibit ferroptosis. Finally, silencing GLRX5 activated the iron-starvation response in SH-SY5Y cells and PCB-DS unimproved OGD/R injury upon GLRX5 silencing. CONCLUSION: Different from DS, PCB-DS suppressed ferroptosis to alleviate CIRI through inhibiting GLRX5-mediated iron-starvation response. These findings give a comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the effect of PCB-DS against CIRI and provide evidence to assess the product in clinical studies.

Encoding, working memory, or decision: how feedback modulates time perception.

The hypothesis that individuals can accurately represent temporal information within approximately 3 s is the premise of several theoretical models and empirical studies in the field of temporal processing. The significance of accurately representing time within 3 s and the universality of the overestimation contrast dramatically. To clarify whether this overestimation arises from an inability to accurately represent time or a response bias, we systematically examined whether feedback reduces overestimation at the 3 temporal processing stages of timing (encoding), working memory, and decisions proposed by the scalar timing model. Participants reproduced the time interval between 2 circles with or without feedback, while the electroencephalogram (EEG) was synchronously recorded. Behavioral results showed that feedback shortened reproduced times and significantly minimized overestimation. EEG results showed that feedback significantly decreased the amplitude of contingent negative variation (CNV) in the decision stage but did not modulate the CNV amplitude in the encoding stage or the P2-P3b amplitudes in the working memory stage. These results suggest that overestimation arises from response bias when individuals convert an accurate representation of time into behavior. Our study provides electrophysiological evidence to support the conception that short intervals under approximately 3 s can be accurately represented as "temporal gestalt."

Impact of Land Use Change on the Habitat Quality Evolution in Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China.

Habitat quality (HQ) is an important indicator to characterize the level of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and can reflect the quality of the human living environment. Changes in land use can disturb regional HQ. Current research mostly focuses on assessing the good or bad quality of regional habitats, and less on the spatial response relationship between land use change and HQ, and even fewer studies on finely distinguishing the impact of land use types on HQ. Therefore, taking Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) of China as the study area, this paper first analyzes the land use change of study area by using the land use transfer matrix, land use rate model and landscape pattern index, and then combines the InVEST model with the multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model to build a refined assessment framework to quantitatively assess the spatial and temporal evolution patterns of HQ, and then analyse in detail the spatial response relationship of each land use type change on the impact of HQ. The results showed that from 2000 to 2020, the land use in the TGRA shows a changing state of "urban expansion, cultivated land shrinkage, forest land growth, and grassland degradation". With the change in land use, the habitat quality index (HQI) in the study area showed an " increase first and then decline" change characteristics, and the HQ degradation was more obvious in the areas with intense human activities. The impact of land use change over the past 20 years on HQ in the TGRA has significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity, with changes in paddy and dryland having mainly negative impacts on HQ, and changes in sparse land, shrubland, and medium-cover grassland having mainly positive impacts on HQ. This paper mainly provides a research framework for refined assessment, and the results can provide scientific support for land planning and ecological protection in the TGRA, and the research methods and ideas can provide references for similar research.

Electrophysiological evidence for a common magnitude representation of spatiotemporal information in working memory.

Spatiotemporal interference has attracted increasing attention because it provides a window for studying the neural representation of magnitude in the brain. We aimed to identify the neural basis of spatiotemporal interference using a Kappa effect task in which two circles were presented in sequence with two time intervals and three space distances. Participants reproduced the time intervals while ignoring the space distance when electroencephalogram signals were recorded synchronously. The behavior results showed that production time increased with time interval and space distance. Offset of the time intervals elicited typical P2 and P3b components. Larger parietal P2 and P3b amplitudes were elicited by the combination of longer time intervals and longer space distances. The parietal P2 and P3b amplitudes were positively correlated with the production time, and the corresponding neural source was located in the parietal cortex. The results suggest that the parietal P2 and P3b index updates a common representation of spatiotemporal information in working memory, which provides electrophysiological evidence for the mechanisms underlying spatiotemporal interferences. Our study supports a theory of magnitude, in which different dimensions can be integrated into a common magnitude representation in a generalized magnitude system that is localized at the parietal cortex.

Valence of Temporal Self-Appraisals: A Comparison Between First-Person Perspective and Third-Person Perspective.

Mental time travel is one of the most remarkable achievements of mankind. On the one hand, people perceive past self, present self, and future self as a continuous unity; on the other hand, people have the ability to distinguish among the three types of temporal selves because there are different representations of them. In this study, we used an adapted temporal self-reference paradigm to explore the processing mechanism of different temporal selves. Temporal self-reference was performed from the first-person perspective in Experiment 1 and from the third-person perspective in Experiment 2. The results indicated that people showed a more positive bias toward future self compared with past self and present self no matter in the first-person perspective or third-person perspective. There was no difference in recognition rate among past self, present self, and future self. Compared with the first-person perspective, present self-processing in the third-person perspective was more abstract and generalized, which may reflect that the third-person perspective has the same distancing function as time. This study can deepen understandings on temporal self-appraisals from different perspectives.

A unifying Bayesian framework accounting for spatiotemporal interferences with a deceleration tendency.

Spatial and temporal levels of information processing interfere with each other. The Kappa effect is a well-known spatiotemporal interference in which the estimated time between two lights increases as the distance between them increases, showing a deceleration tendency. A classical model attributes this interference to constant speeds and predicts a linear relation, whereas a slowness model attributes the interference to slow speeds and proposes that the tendency is due to the uncertainty of stimuli locations. This study integrated a unifying Bayesian framework with the classical model and argued that this tendency is the result of the Weber-Fechner law. This hypothesis was tested via two time discrimination tasks that manipulated the uncertainty of stimuli locations and the distance between stimuli. Experiment 1 showed that the estimated time was not modulated by the uncertainty of the stimuli locations. Experiment 2 revealed that the behavioral predictions made by the Bayesian model on logarithmic scales were more accurate than those made by the linear model. Our results suggest that the deceleration tendency in the Kappa effect is the result of the Weber-Fechner law.

A Systematic Review Approach to Find Robust Items of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory.

The Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) is one of the most well-known and widely used measures of time perspective. Various short versions were proposed to resolve the psychometric problems of the ZTPI. The present study conducted a systematic review to obtain 25 short versions, calculated the frequency of each item of the ZTPI in short versions, and hypothesized that the more frequent the item is, the more robust it becomes. The hypothesis was tested by assessing the structural validity and internal consistency of short forms with high, medium, and low frequent items in Chinese samples (575 children, 407 undergraduates, and 411 older adults). Structural validity and internal consistency analyses showed that the form with more frequent items had better psychometric properties; item frequencies were positively correlated with factor loadings. The results suggest that the systematic review is an effective approach to identify the robust items of the ZTPI. This approach is general and can be the basis to improve the psychometric properties of scales in social science.

CNSA: a data repository for archiving omics data.

With the application and development of high-throughput sequencing technology in life and health sciences, massive multi-omics data brings the problem of efficient management and utilization. Database development and biocuration are the prerequisites for the reuse of these big data. Here, relying on China National GeneBank (CNGB), we present CNGB Sequence Archive (CNSA) for archiving omics data, including raw sequencing data and its further analyzed results which are organized into six objects, namely Project, Sample, Experiment, Run, Assembly and Variation at present. Moreover, CNSA has created a correlation model of living samples, sample information and analytical data on some projects. Both living samples and analytical data are directly correlated with the sample information. From either one, information or data of the other two can be obtained, so that all data can be traced throughout the life cycle from the living sample to the sample information to the analytical data. Complying with the data standards commonly used in the life sciences, CNSA is committed to building a comprehensive and curated data repository for storing, managing and sharing of omics data. We will continue to improve the data standards and provide free access to open-data resources for worldwide scientific communities to support academic research and the bio-industry. Database URL: https://db.cngb.org/cnsa/.

The Temporal Dynamic Relationship Between Attention and Crowding: Electrophysiological Evidence From an Event-Related Potential Study.

Visual crowding is the difficulty experienced in identifying a target flanked by other objects within the peripheral visual field. Despite extensive research conducted on this topic, the precise relationship between attention and crowding is still debatable. One perspective suggests that crowding is a bottom-up and pre-attentive process, while another suggests that crowding is top-down and attentional. A third perspective proposes that crowding is a combination of bottom-up and top-down processes. To address this debate, the current study manipulated the attention and distance between targets and flankers, while simultaneously measuring event-related potentials, in human participants. Results indicated that, compared to uncrowded targets, crowded targets elicited more negative frontal N1 and P2 activity and a less negative occipital N1 activity, regardless of whether targets were attended or unattended, and a more positive occipital P2 activity when they were attended. Furthermore, the crowded minus uncrowded difference amplitude was more negative over the frontal region and more positive over the occipital region when the targets were attended, compared to when they were unattended during the N1 and P2 stages. This suggests that crowding, a concept that originates from Gestalt grouping, occurs automatically and can be modulated by attention.

A Study of Teacher Stereotypes: How Do Tuition-Free Teacher Candidates and General Undergraduates Think about Middle School and University Teachers in China?

A tuition-free teacher candidate is an undergraduate who receives tuition-free teacher education and must work as a teacher in a middle school after their graduation. Tuition-free candidates are of the focus of many researchers; however, no study reports how tuition-free teacher candidates think about teachers. The present study explored stereotypes about middle school and university teachers held by teacher candidates. Specifically, we looked for the differences between the stereotypes held by the teacher candidates and general undergraduates. This study attempted to provide a potential tool to predict the actual willingness of teacher candidates to work as middle school teachers. University and middle school teachers were evaluated using descriptive phrases or words on a five-point Likert scale by 116 tuition-free teacher candidates and 155 general undergraduates. Exploratory factor analyses revealed a three-factor stereotype model including occupational cognition, occupational personality, and occupational emotion. Compared with general undergraduates, teacher candidates held more positive occupational personality and emotions toward middle school teachers; they held more negative occupational emotions toward university teachers. Further, the undergraduates' willingness to be middle school teachers positively correlated with positive occupational emotions and negatively correlated with negative occupational personality and emotions toward middle school teachers. This supported previous studies that individuals' professional willingness were influenced by their stereotypes about professions.

Crowded words can be processed semantically: evidence from an ERP study.

The term "crowding" refers to impaired peripheral object identification due to the presence of nearby objects. In this study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate semantic processing of crowded Chinese words by combining a crowding task with a semantic-priming paradigm. Results showed that the N400 component, an index of semantic processing, was elicited by both crowded and uncrowded words. These results suggest that words were processed semantically despite crowding, and that features of the crowded words were integrated correctly.

[mRNA expression and methylation status of p15 promoter in mouse bone marrow cells exposed to 1,4-benzoquinone].

OBJECTIVE: To detect the expression and the CpG island methylation status of tumor suppressor gene p15 after exposure to 1,4-benzoquinone (1,4-BQ) in primary cultivated C57BL/6J mouse bone marrow cells in vitro. METHODS: The mouse bone marrow cells were isolated in vitro. The effect of 0, 0.1, 1, 5, 10, 20, and 40 µmol/L 1,4-BQ on cell viability (CKK-8) was detected. 0, 0.1, 1, 10 µmol/L 1,4-BQ were used to intoxicate the mouse bone marrow cells for 24 h; Real-time PCR was employed to analyze the mRNA expression level of p15; The bisulfite sequencing PCR (BSP) was used to look into the methylation status of CpG islands in p15 promoter region. RESULTS: 1,4-BQ exhibited dose-dependent toxicity to mouse bone marrow cells, and the LC(50) was 8.3 µmol/L (95%CI: 4.6 - 10.6 µmol/L). The mRNA expression of p15 in 10 µmol/L group was only equivalent to 43% of control group. Compared with control group, the decrease of p15 mRNA expression in1 and 10 µmol/L concentration were obvious, and the differences had statistical significance (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). BSP sequencing results were same between the exposure groups and control group, the 56 CpG sites on CpG islands remained in the state of unmethylated. CONCLUSION: mRNA expression of p15 gene decreases after exposure to 1,4-BQ, but the CpG islands methylation status in promoter is not affected, suggesting that methylation does not participate in 1,4-BQ-mediated p15 gene expression decrease, other effect mechanisms still need to be investigated.

Differences in the neural basis of automatic auditory and visual time perception: ERP evidence from an across-modal delayed response oddball task.

In our everyday lives, we need to process auditory and visual temporal information as efficiently as possible. Although automatic auditory time perception has been widely investigated using an index of the mismatch negativity (MMN), the neural basis of automatic visual time perception has been largely ignored. The present study investigated the automatic processing of auditory and visual time perception employing the cross-modal delayed response oddball paradigm. In the experimental condition, the standard stimulus was 200 ms and the deviant stimulus was 120 ms, which were exchanged in the control condition. Reaction time, accuracy, and event-related potential (ERP) data were measured when participants performed the duration discrimination task. The ERP results showed that the MMN, N2b, and P3 were elicited by an auditory deviant stimulus under the attention condition, while only the MMN was elicited under the inattention condition. The MMN was largest over the frontal and central sites, while the difference in MMN amplitude was not significant between under the attention and inattention condition. In contrast, the change-related positivity (CRP) and the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) were elicited by the visual deviant stimulus under both the attention and inattention conditions. The CRP was largest over the occipito-temporal sites under the attention condition and over the fronto-central sites under the inattention condition. The difference in CRP amplitude was significant between the attention and inattention condition. The vMMN was largest over the parieto-occipital sites under the attention condition, and largest over the fronto-central sites under the inattention condition. The difference in vMMN amplitude was significant between the attention and inattention condition. Auditory MMN does not appear to be modulated by attention, whereas the visual CRP and the vMMN are modulated by attention. Therefore, the present study provides electrophysiological evidence for the existence of automatic visual time perception and supports an "attentional switch" hypothesis for a modality effect on duration judgments, such that auditory temporal information is processed relatively automatically, whereas visual temporal information processing requires controlled attention.

An event-related potential study of temporal information encoding and decision making.

This research used event-related potentials to investigate the time course of temporal information encoding and decision making. Participants performed auditory temporal and pitch discrimination tasks within a S1-S2 matching paradigm, wherein two stimuli (S1-S2) are presented sequentially, and S2 is either the same as or different from S1. Event-related potentials results showed N1, P2 and contingent negative variation (CNV) amplitudes were higher during encoding than decision making. During the encoding phase, N1 and P2 amplitudes were lower in the temporal task than the pitch task. During the decision-making phase, the CNV amplitude was higher in the temporal task. Findings suggest N1, P2 and CNV are related to temporal encoding, albeit only CNV is related to temporal decision making.

[Effects of fertilizer application on contents of 2-undecanone and soluble carbonhydrate in Houttuynia cordata with different fertilizers].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of five kinds of fertilizers at three application levels on the content of 2-undecanone and carbohydrate in Houttuynia cordata. METHOD: A single factor randomized block design was used to investigate the content of 2-undecanone and carbohydrate in the plant. RESULT: The results showed that the content of 2-undecanone was the highest both in aerial and underground parts of H. cordata, which was fertilized with complex fertilizers served in conventional way, having the content 18.6 microg g(-1) and 26.0 microg g(-1) respectively. In addition, 2-undecanone contents in aerial parts of H. cordata (14.9 microg g(-1)) fertilized with manure of human were also higher than that with chemical fertilizer, pig and duck manures, but no significant difference were found among the other treatments in aerial or underground parts of the plants, respectively. The results also demonstrated that fertilized with organic fertilizer might be beneficial to enhance the quality of sugar in H. cordata, mainly including the contents of total sugar, solutable sugar, fructose and reduced sugar in the plants, especially with manure of human and pig. CONCLUSION: As the result of this study and the related previous research on yield of H. cordata were considered, the fertilizing ways for increasing quality of H. cordata should take the manure of human as a main fertilizer and mix with the other organic fertilizers, complex fertilizers and chemical ones may be needed to balance the plant nutrient. In the field practice, the amount of organic fertilizer including 108,000 kg hm(-2) human mature, together with some high-efficient complex fertilizer and a small amount of quick-acting chemical fertilizer is recommended.