The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex represents subjective value across effort-based and risky decision-making.

Decisions that require taking effort costs into account are ubiquitous in real life. The neural common currency theory hypothesizes that a particular neural network integrates different costs (e.g., risk) and rewards into a common scale to facilitate value comparison. Although there has been a surge of interest in the computational and neural basis of effort-related value integration, it is still under debate if effort-based decision-making relies on a domain-general valuation network as implicated in the neural common currency theory. Therefore, we comprehensively compared effort-based and risky decision-making using a combination of computational modeling, univariate and multivariate fMRI analyses, and data from two independent studies. We found that effort-based decision-making can be best described by a power discounting model that accounts for both the discounting rate and effort sensitivity. At the neural level, multivariate decoding analyses indicated that the neural patterns of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) represented subjective value across different decision-making tasks including either effort or risk costs, although univariate signals were more diverse. These findings suggest that multivariate dmPFC patterns play a critical role in computing subjective value in a task-independent manner and thus extend the scope of the neural common currency theory.

Swimming Exercise Ameliorates Hypertension-Induced Kidney Dysfunction via Alleviating Renal Interstitial Fibrosis and Apoptosis.

BACKGROUND: Hypertensive nephropathy is one of the major causes of ESRD. Exercise has been considered a nonpathological therapy for hypertension and its complications, yet mechanisms remain unclear. We sought to investigate whether periodic swimming could ameliorate hypertension-induced kidney dysfunction and its underlying mechanisms. METHODS: Four-week male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) were randomly divided into the hypertension group (SHR, n = 8) and exercise group (SE, n = 8, 60 min swimming/day, 6 days per week, for 8 weeks). Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY, n = 8) were served as a sedentary normotensive group. Bodyweight and blood pressure (BP) were recorded weekly. After 8-week sedentary or swimming exercise, lipids profile, BUN, and Cr were measured. The renal interstitial fibrosis was examined by the histopathological analysis using Masson's trichrome staining and hematoxylin and eosin staining. The kidney cell apoptosis was tested by TUNEL staining. The expressions of critical proteins responsible for the TGF-ß1/Smad signaling of fibrosis, that is, TGF-ß1, Smad2/3, and Smad7, as well as apoptosis related proteins, Bax and Bcl-2 in kidney cortex tissues were measured. RESULTS: The 8-week swimming exercise reduced BP and bodyweight, lowered concentrations of BUN, and serum Cr, compared with SHR. Exercise remarkably inhibited hypertension-induced tubular degeneration, cellular cluster, and tubular cell swelling as well as glomerular degeneration in the kidney cortical tissues, attenuated renal interstitial fibrosis, and renal cell apoptosis. Moreover, expressions of TGF-ß1, Smad2/3, and Bax were higher in the SHR than the WKY, which were significantly suppressed by the exercise. In contrast, hypertension-reduced expressions of Smad7 and Bcl-2 were enhanced by the swimming exercise. Strong correlations were found between kidney function indices, blood lipids, and key protein expressions. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate beneficial effects of the periodic swimming on ameliorating hypertension-induced kidney dysfunction highlighting the potential of swimming exercise as a nonpathological therapy for early prevention of hypertension-caused kidney diseases.

Resting-state connectome-based support-vector-machine predictive modeling of internet gaming disorder.

Internet gaming disorder (IGD), a worldwide mental health issue, has been widely studied using neuroimaging techniques during the last decade. Although dysfunctions in resting-state functional connectivity have been reported in IGD, mapping relationships from abnormal connectivity patterns to behavioral measures have not been fully investigated. Connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM)-a recently developed machine-learning approach-has been used to examine potential neural mechanisms in addictions and other psychiatric disorders. To identify the resting-state connections associated with IGD, we modified the CPM approach by replacing its core learning algorithm with a support vector machine. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were acquired in 72 individuals with IGD and 41 healthy comparison participants. The modified CPM was conducted with respect to classification and regression. A comparison of whole-brain and network-based analyses showed that the default-mode network (DMN) is the most informative network in predicting IGD both in classification (individual identification accuracy = 78.76%) and regression (correspondence between predicted and actual psychometric scale score: r = 0.44, P < 0.001). To facilitate the characterization of the aberrant resting-state activity in the DMN, the identified networks have been mapped into a three-subsystem division of the DMN. Results suggest that individual differences in DMN function at rest could advance our understanding of IGD and variability in disorder etiology and intervention outcomes.

The Device-Object Pairing Problem: Matching IoT Devices with Video Objects in a Multi-Camera Environment.

IoT technologies enable millions of devices to transmit their sensor data to the external world. The device-object pairing problem arises when a group of Internet of Things is concurrently tracked by cameras and sensors. While cameras view these things as visual "objects", these things which are equipped with "sensing devices" also continuously report their status. The challenge is that when visualizing these things on videos, their status needs to be placed properly on the screen. This requires correctly pairing visual objects with their sensing devices. There are many real-life examples. Recognizing a vehicle in videos does not imply that we can read its pedometer and fuel meter inside. Recognizing a pet on screen does not mean that we can correctly read its necklace data. In more critical ICU environments, visualizing all patients and showing their physiological signals on screen would greatly relieve nurses' burdens. The barrier behind this is that the camera may see an object but not be able to see its carried device, not to mention its sensor readings. This paper addresses the device-object pairing problem and presents a multi-camera, multi-IoT device system that enables visualizing a group of people together with their wearable devices' data and demonstrating the ability to recover the missing bounding box.

Enhanced multi-stress tolerance and glucose utilization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by overexpression of the SNF1 gene and varied beta isoform of Snf1 dominates in stresses.

BACKGROUND: The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Snf1 complex is a member of the AMP-activated protein kinase family and plays an important role in response to environmental stress. The α catalytic subunit Snf1 regulates the activity of the protein kinase, while the ß regulatory subunits Sip1/Sip2/Gal83 specify substrate preferences and stress response capacities of Snf1. In this study, we aim to investigate the effects of SNF1 overexpression on the cell tolerance and glucose consumption of S. cerevisiae in high glucose, ethanol, and heat stresses and to explore the valid Snf1 form in the light of ß subunits in these stresses. RESULTS: The results suggest that overexpression of SNF1 is effective to improve cell resistance and glucose consumption of S. cerevisiae in high glucose, ethanol, and heat stresses, which might be related to the changed accumulation of fatty acids and amino acids and altered expression levels of genes involved in glucose transport and glycolysis. However, different form of ß regulatory subunits dominated in stresses with regard to cell tolerance and glucose utilization. The Sip1 isoform was more necessary to the growth and glucose consumption in ethanol stress. The glucose uptake largely depended on the Sip2 isoform in high sugar and ethanol stresses. The Gal83 isoform only contributed inferior effect on the growth in ethanol stress. Therefore, redundancy and synergistic effect of ß subunits might occur in high glucose, ethanol, and heat stresses, but each subunit showed specificity under various stresses. CONCLUSIONS: This study enriches the understanding of the function of Snf1 protein kinase and provides an insight to breed multi-stress tolerant yeast strains.

Correlations between tumor stroma characters and dynamic enhanced MDCT findings in nodular pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate correlations between tumor stroma characters and dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomographic (CT) findings in nodular pulmonary adenocarcinoma. METHODS: Thirty-three patients with nodular pulmonary adenocarcinoma underwent dynamic contrast-enhancement CT scan before surgery. CT findings include wash-in, wash-out, and distribution of enhancement. The proportion of invasive and noninvasive stroma in tumor was calculated. RESULTS: Invasive and noninvasive stroma proportion in tumor was correlated positively with wash-in and wash-out enhancement, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor stroma proliferation may explain the pathologic basis of CT dynamic enhancement and be a useful prognostic factor of pulmonary adenocarcinoma.

Subgroups of internet gaming disorder based on addiction-related resting-state functional connectivity.

AIMS: To identify subgroups of people with internet gaming disorder (IGD) based on addiction-related resting-state functional connectivity and how these subgroups show different clinical correlates and responses to treatment. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data sets. SETTING: Zhejiang province and Beijing, China. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and sixty-nine IGD and 147 control subjects. MEASUREMENTS: k-Means algorithmic and support-vector machine-learning approaches were used to identify subgroups of IGD subjects. These groups were examined with respect to assessments of craving, behavioral activation and inhibition, emotional regulation, cue-reactivity and guessing-related measures. FINDINGS: Two groups of subjects with IGD were identified and defined by distinct patterns of connectivity in brain networks previously implicated in addictions: subgroup 1 ('craving-related subgroup') and subgroup 2 ('mixed psychological subgroup'). Clustering IGD on this basis enabled the development of diagnostic classifiers with high sensitivity and specificity for IGD subgroups in 10-fold validation (n = 218) and out-of-sample replication (n = 98) data sets. Subgroup 1 is characterized by high craving scores, cue-reactivity during fMRI and responsiveness to a craving behavioral intervention therapy. Subgroup 2 is characterized by high craving, behavioral inhibition and activations scores, non-adaptive emotion-regulation strategies and guessing-task fMRI measures. Subgroups 1 and 2 showed largely opposite functional-connectivity patterns in overlapping networks. CONCLUSIONS: There appear to be two subgroups of people with internet gaming disorder, each associated with differing patterns of brain functional connectivity and distinct clinical symptom profiles and gender compositions.

Gender-related differences in involvement of addiction brain networks in internet gaming disorder: Relationships with craving and emotional regulation.

BACKGROUND: Abnormal interactions among addiction brain networks associated with intoxication, negative affect, and anticipation may have relevance for internet gaming disorder (IGD). Despite prior studies having identified gender-related differences in the neural correlates of IGD, gender-related differences in the involvement of brain networks remain unclear. METHODS: One-hundred-and-nine individuals with IGD (54 males) and 111 with recreational game use (RGU; 58 males) provided resting-state fMRI data. We examined gender-related differences in involvement of addiction brain networks in IGD versus RGU subjects. We further compared the strength between and within addiction brain networks and explored possible relationships between the strength of functional connectivities within and between addiction brain networks and several relevant behavioral measures. RESULTS: The addiction brain networks showed high correct classification rates in distinguishing IGD and RGU subjects in men and women. Male subjects with versus without IGD showed stronger functional connectivities between and within addiction brain networks. Moreover, the strength of the connectivity within the anticipation network in male IGD subjects was positively related to subjective craving. However, female subjects with versus without IGD showed decreased functional connections between and within addiction brain networks. The strength of connectivity between the anticipation and negative-affect brain networks in female IGD subjects was negatively related to maladaptive cognitive emotion-regulation strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Addiction brain networks have potential for distinguishing IGD and RGU individuals. Importantly, this study identified novel gender-related differences in brain-behavior relationships in IGD. These results help advance current neuroscientific theories of IGD and may inform gender-informed treatment strategies.

Connectome-based prediction of marital quality in husbands' processing of spousal interactions.

Marital quality may decrease during the early years of marriage. Establishing models predicting individualized marital quality may help develop timely and effective interventions to maintain or improve marital quality. Given that marital interactions have an important impact on marital well-being cross-sectionally and prospectively, neural responses during marital interactions may provide insight into neural bases underlying marital well-being. The current study applies connectome-based predictive modeling, a recently developed machine-learning approach, to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from both partners of 25 early-stage Chinese couples to examine whether an individual's unique pattern of brain functional connectivity (FC) when responding to spousal interactive behaviors can reliably predict their own and their partners' marital quality after 13 months. Results revealed that husbands' FC involving multiple large networks, when responding to their spousal interactive behaviors, significantly predicted their own and their wives' marital quality, and this predictability showed gender specificity. Brain connectivity patterns responding to general emotional stimuli and during the resting state were not significantly predictive. This study demonstrates that husbands' differences in large-scale neural networks during marital interactions may contribute to their variability in marital quality and highlights gender-related differences. The findings lay a foundation for identifying reliable neuroimaging biomarkers for developing interventions for marital quality early in marriages.

Neural classification of internet gaming disorder and prediction of treatment response using a cue-reactivity fMRI task in young men.

BACKGROUND: Neural mechanisms underlying internet gaming disorder (IGD) are important for diagnostic considerations and treatment development. However, neurobiological underpinnings of IGD remain relatively poorly understood. METHODS: We employed multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA), a machine-learning approach, to examine the potential of neural features to statistically predict IGD status and treatment outcome (percentage change in weekly gaming time) for IGD. Cue-reactivity fMRI-task data were collected from 40 male IGD subjects and 19 male healthy control (HC) subjects. 23 IGD subjects received 6 weeks of craving behavioral intervention (CBI) treatment. MVPA was applied to classify IGD subjects from HCs and statistically predict clinical outcomes. RESULTS: MVPA displayed a high (92.37%) accuracy (sensitivity of 90.00% and specificity of 94.74%) in the classification of IGD and HC subjects. The most discriminative brain regions that contribute to classification were the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, precuneus, and posterior lobe of the right cerebellum. MVPA statistically predicted clinical outcomes in the craving behavioral intervention (CBI) group (r = 0.48, p = 0.0032). The most strongly implicated brain regions in the prediction model were the right middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, anterior/posterior lobes of the cerebellum and left postcentral gyrus. CONCLUSIONS: The findings about cue-reactivity neural correlates could help identify IGD subjects and predict CBI-related treatment outcomes provide mechanistic insight into IGD and its treatment and may help promote treatment development efforts.

Neural activations to loss anticipation mediates the association between difficulties in emotion regulation and screen media activities among early adolescent youth: A moderating role for depression.

BACKGROUND: Screen media activities (SMAs; e.g., watching videos, playing videogames) have become increasingly prevalent among youth as ways to alleviate or escape from negative emotional states. However, neural mechanisms underlying these processes in youth are incompletely understood. METHOD: Seventy-nine youth aged 11-15 years completed a monetary incentive delay task during fMRI scanning. Neural correlates of reward/loss processing and their associations with SMAs were explored. Next, brain activations during reward/loss processing in regions implicated in the processing of emotions were examined as potential mediating factors between difficulties in emotion regulation (DER) and engagement in SMAs. Finally, a moderated mediation model tested the effects of depressive symptoms in such relationships. RESULT: The emotional components associated with SMAs in reward/loss processing included activations in the left anterior insula (AI) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during anticipation of working to avoid losses. Activations in both the AI and DLPFC mediated the relationship between DER and SMAs. Moreover, depressive symptoms moderated the relationship between AI activation in response to loss anticipation and SMAs. CONCLUSION: The current findings suggest that DER link to SMAs through loss-related brain activations implicated in the processing of emotions and motivational avoidance, particularly in youth with greater levels of depressive symptoms. The findings suggest the importance of enhancing emotion-regulation tendencies/abilities in youth and, in particular, their regulatory responses to negative emotional situations in order to guide moderate engagement in SMAs.

[Effects of oxidative stress on MuRF1 expression in skeletal muscle of diabetic rats].

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether muscle-specific RING finger protein 1 (MuRF1) expression induced by oxidative stress lead to muscle wasting in diabetes rats. METHODS: The diabetes rat model was established by high-carbohydrate, high-fat diet and injection of streptozotocin. The expression of MuRF1 in gastrocnemius was detected by immunohistochemistry and real time PCR. The level of lipid peroxidation, SOD and fiber size of gastrocnemius was also detected. Further more, C2C12 myotubes were cultured with different concentration of H2O2 (0, 0.01, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.20 mmol/L), the level of MuRF1 protein was detected by western blot. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the diabetes rats showed higher level of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and MuRF1 mRNA and lower fiber size in gastrocnemius (P < 0.01). The oxidative stress induced by H2O2 (0.05, 0.10 and 0.20 mmol/L) upregulated the expression of MuRF1 (P < 0.01) in C2C12 myotube cells. CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that diabetes modulated the expression of MuRF1 leading to muscle wasting, and the mechanism might be involved with oxidative stress.

A review of psychological interventions for internet addiction.

Internet addiction (IA) may constitute a widespread and serious mental problem. Previous reviews have not fully considered potential factors that may contribute to therapeutic outcomes or predict behavioral changes. Such information is relevant to understand the active ingredients of interventions and to develop more efficacious treatments that target features of IA. This systematic review was designed to relate theories of IA to treatments, describe studies of psychotherapies for IA, and propose a model of addiction and interventions based on extant studies. A computer database search of PubMed, PsychINFO, ScienceDirect, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Google Scholar was conducted to identify all available research evidence on psychological treatments for IA (N = 31 studies). Among these psychological interventions, the targeted reduction of addiction-related impulsivity and craving, improvement of cognitive maladjustment, and alleviation of family problems have been investigated in IA interventions. The targeted domains and intervention methods are not mutually exclusive, and further research is needed to demonstrate the effective components and mechanisms of action for treatments of IA. Such research will help generate more efficacious evidence-based interventions.

Efficient Brain Connectivity Reconfiguration Predicts Higher Marital Quality and Lower Depression.

Social-information processing is important for successful romantic relationships and protecting against depression, and depends on functional connectivity (FC) within and between large-scale networks. Functional architecture evident at rest is adaptively reconfigured during task and there were two possible associations between brain reconfiguration and behavioral performance during neurocognitive tasks (efficiency effect and distraction-based effect). This study examined relationships between brain reconfiguration during social-information processing and relationship-specific and more general social outcomes in marriage. Resting-state FC was compared with FC during social-information processing (watching relationship-specific and general emotional stimuli) of 29 heterosexual couples, and the FC similarity (reconfiguration efficiency) was examined in relation to marital quality and depression 13 months later. The results indicated wives' reconfiguration efficiency (globally and in visual association network) during relationship-specific stimuli processing was related to their own marital quality. Higher reconfiguration efficiency (globally and in medial frontal, frontal-parietal, default mode, motor/sensory and salience networks) in wives during general emotional stimuli processing was related to their lower depression. These findings suggest efficiency effects on social outcomes during social cognition, especially among married women. The efficiency effects on relationship-specific and more general outcome are respectively higher during relationship-specific stimuli or general emotional stimuli processing.

Impaired regulation of both addiction-related and primary rewards in individuals with internet gaming disorder.

Poor executive function (EF) has been implicated in addictions. Among "hot" EFs (i.e., those involving motivations and emotions), poor regulation of craving has been proposed to underlie addiction development in substance-use disorders (SUDs), making such regulation a potential treatment target. However, regulation of craving remains poorly understood in internet gaming disorder (IGD). Additionally, prior studies of cold EFs (e.g., inhibition and cognitive flexibility under neutral conditions) in IGD have provided mixed results and mostly included only male subjects. We addressed these issues by instructing 54 participants (26 with IGD including males and females, and 28 control subjects) to perform a regulation-of-craving (ROC) task and a Stroop color-word-interference task. Compared to control subjects, individuals with IGD revealed deficits in regulation for both gaming- and food-related craving, but no differences in Stroop performance. The current study provides initial empirical support suggesting regulation impairments for both addiction-related and primary rewards among individuals with IGD. The findings are consistent with studies in SUDs, suggesting that impaired regulation of craving may be a relevant transdiagnostic construct across SUDs and behavioral addictions. The findings suggest targeting regulation of "hot" processes should be considered in IGD treatment development.

[Comparison of the antimicrobial resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from children and adults in vitro].

OBJECTIVE: To study the differences of theantimicrobial-resistant profiles between the isolates of Staphylococci aureu from children and from adults. METHODS: Staphylococci was identified by the plasma coagulase test, Staphylococci monoclonal antibody and VITEK-32 fully automated microbiology analyzer.Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done by the K-B disk diffusion for 84 Staphylococci isolates from children and 74 Staphylococci isolates from adults. Cefoxitin was used for detecting methillicin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by the disk diffusion test. RESULTS: Seven (8%) MRSA isolates were found in Staphylococci isolates from children compared with 35 MRSA isolates (47%) in those from adults (p<0.01). All strains were susceptible to vancomycin. All strains from children were susceptible to fusidic acid. The resistant rates of the isolates from children to cefazolin, cefuroxime, gentamicin, cefoxitin, and levofloxacin were significantly lower than those from adults (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The antimicrobial resistance of the Staphylococcus aureus isolates from adults is more prevalent than that in the isolates from children.

What Would a Suprapubic Catheter Indwelling for 4 Years Be Like? A Case Report.

A 35-year-old male of 165 cm height and weight of 65 kg, had a suprapubic catheter indwelling for 4 years without replacement for urethral stricture. The catheter became gradually obstructed, and urine leaked out around the suprapubic catheter. A lumbar abdominal distension, an inferior abdominal mass and renal failure prompted him to seek medical attention in our hospital in September 2018. This clinical case is hereby presented from 3 aspects of imaging, lab examination, and operation.

Pathological characteristics of angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma with bone marrow involvement / 临床与实验病理学杂志

Purpose To explore the pathological features of angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma(AITL)with bone marrow involvement and to improve awareness of bone marrow infiltration in AITL.Methods The tissue morphology of 32 cases of AITL with bone marrow involvement was retrospectively analyzed.Im-munohistochemistry using the EnVision method and ten-color flow cytometry were conducted to detect AITL-related immune markers.T cell clonality was analyzed through T cell receptor(TCR)gene rearrangement.Results The predominant pat-terns of tumor cell infiltration were nodular(20/32,62.5％)and interstitial or small clusters(10/32,31.3％).The nodules showed a mixture of cellular components.In some cases,the fo-ci contained a mixture of cells with characteristic"granuloma-toid"changes.The tumor cells were mainly small to medium-sized lymphocytes with inconspicuous atypia.Some cases showed plasma cell proliferation.19 cases were subject to immunohisto-chemical staining,which revealed a low count of CD4-positive T cells,with an average of 8.4％.The positive rates of T follic-ular helper cells(TFH)markers were as follows:CD10(7/14,50.0％),BCL6(6/19,31.6％),PD-1(13/19,68.4％),and CXCL13(13/19,68.4％).In most cases,tumor cells showed co-expression of PD-1 and CXCL13,but the number of positive cells was less than 1％.Flow cytometry analysis was performed in 24 cases,among which 22 cases all consistently expressed cytoplasmic CD3(cCD3),CD5,CD4,and CD2,with varying degrees of CD10 expression.In some cases,there was a lack of expression of surface CD3(sCD3)(12/22,54.5％),while there was a lack of expression of CD7(8/22,36.4％).and no abnormal T cells were found in 2 cases.TCR gene rearrangement analysis was performed in 7 cases,with 3 cases showing TCR clonality.Conclusion AITL with bone marrow involvement exhibits a lower proportion of tumor cells and less atypia,making it prone to misdiagnosis.The presence of lymphocytic foci with mixed cellular components in the bone marrow can indicate bone marrow involvement in AITL.Flow cy-tometry detection of abnormal T cells(double positive for CD4 and CD10)strongly suggests bone marrow infiltration in AITL.A comprehensive diagnosis of bone marrow involvement in AITL re-quires consideration of bone marrow biopsy,flow cytometry,and TCR gene rearrangement analysis.

Swim training sensitizes myocardial response to insulin: role of Akt-dependent eNOS activation.

OBJECTIVES: Physical activity has been well known to benefit heart function. The improved autonomic nervous activity is considered to be mainly responsible for this beneficial effect. However, the precise mechanism behind the intrinsic myocardial responsiveness to exercise is still unclear. This study was designed to examine the effect of swim training on myocardial response to insulin with a special focus on the endogenous endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)-nitric oxide (NO) cascade. METHODS: Adult male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were subjected to a 10-week free-loading swim training (3 h/day, 5 days/week). Contractile response to insulin at the levels of cardiomyocytes and isolated perfused heart, myocardial glucose uptake and post-insulin receptor signaling cascades were evaluated. RESULTS: Swim training enhanced cardiac contractile response to insulin in cardiomyocytes and isolated perfused heart, respectively. The improved cardiac response was accompanied by facilitated insulin-stimulated glucose uptake, GLUT4 translocation and upregulation of Akt and eNOS expression (p<0.01). Treatment with insulin resulted in a 3.6- and 2.2-fold increase of eNOS phosphorylation (p<0.01), as well as a 3.0- and 1.9-fold increase of Akt phosphorylation in exercise and sedentary groups, respectively (p<0.01). In addition, exercise significantly facilitated insulin-induced myocardial NO production (p<0.01 vs. sedentary). Moreover, pretreatment with either LY294002, a phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI-3K) inhibitor or L-NAME, a NOS inhibitor, abolished the exercise-induced sensitization of myocardial contractile response to insulin, insulin-induced NO production and phosphorylation of Akt and eNOS. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that swim training is capable of sensitizing myocardial contractile response to insulin via upregulation of Akt- and eNOS signaling cascades.

Rapid and accurate quantification of amphetamine and methamphetamine in human urine by antibody decorated magnetite nanoparticles coupled with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer analysis.

In this study, a novel method for the simultaneous determination and accurate quantification of abused drugs in human urine was developed. Antibody conjugated boronic acid modified magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4, MNPs) were prepared for the selectively purification of illicit drugs in combination with high resolution matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MALDI-TOF MS) analysis. Illicit drugs, amphetamine (AM) and methamphetamine (MA), were used as model analytes to demonstrate the feasibility of our strategy. Boronic acid functionalized MNPs were first prepared via one-pot synthesis to simplify and improve the efficiency of a chemical reaction. Anti-amphetamine antibody (anti-AM antibody) and anti-methamphetamine antibody (anti-MA antibody) was conjugated onto boronic acid modified MNPs, respectively, through the formation of boronate ester bond that could maintain the correct orientation to maximally capture their antigens. The capacity of antibody conjugation to boronic acid modified MNPs was at least 24 µg antibody/mg MNPs. Antibody-conjugated MNPs were designed to specifically capture AM and MA in human urine samples, both of which can be directly eluted to MALDI target plate by adding MALDI CHCA matrix solution for the following MALDI-MS analysis. The linear range of detection of the proposed method were 25-400 ng/mL and 25-1000 ng/mL with coefficients of determination between 0.9923 and 0.9997 for AM and MA, respectively. The lowest detectable concentrations of AM and MA were 1.87 and 3.75 ng/mL, respectively. More importantly, the proposed method allows rapid and accurate quantification of AM and MA from three suspects' urine samples. The obtained results are consistent with traditional GC/MS analysis. Antibody-conjugated MNPs could thus prove to be powerful tools for important applications such as forensic science, food safety and clinical diagnosis of disease.