Identifying Variation in Physical Health Behaviors and Depressive Symptoms among Religiosity Clusters of African American Adults in the United States.

Religiosity is an important factor in the lives of many African Americans, who suffer a greater health burden than their White counterparts. In this study, we examined associations between dimensions of religiosity with health behaviors and depressive symptoms in a sample of African American adults in the United States. Participants (N = 2086) completed five measures of religiosity (religious involvement, positive and negative religious coping, scriptural influence, belief in illness as punishment for sin) and measures of several health behaviors, cancer screening behaviors, and depressive symptoms. Using cluster analysis to examine the deep structure of religiosity, three clusters emerged: Positive Religious, Negative Religious, and Low Religious. In general, the Positive Religious group engaged in more healthy behaviors (e.g., fruit and vegetable consumption, fecal occult blood test) and fewer risky health behaviors (e.g., smoke and consume alcohol), and reported fewer depressive symptoms than did the Negative Religious and/or Low Religious groups. Theoretical implications and implications for interventions by clergy and mental health professionals are discussed.

Functional characterization of MANNOSE-BINDING LECTIN 1, a G-type lectin gene family member, in response to fungal pathogens of strawberry.

The mannose-binding lectin gene MANNOSE-BINDING LECTIN 1 (MBL1) is a member of the G-type lectin family and is involved in defense in strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa). Genome-wide identification of the G-type lectin family was carried out in woodland strawberry, F. vesca, and 133 G-lectin genes were found. Their expression profiles were retrieved from available databases and indicated that many are actively expressed during plant development or interaction with pathogens. We selected MBL1 for further investigation and generated stable transgenic FaMBL1-overexpressing plants of F. ×ananassa to examine the role of this gene in defense. Plants were selected and evaluated for their contents of disease-related phytohormones and their reaction to biotic stresses, and this revealed that jasmonic acid decreased in the overexpressing lines compared with the wild-type (WT). Petioles of the overexpressing lines inoculated with Colletotrichum fioriniae had lower disease incidence than the WT, and leaves of these lines challenged by Botrytis cinerea showed significantly smaller lesion diameters than the WT and higher expression of CLASS II CHITINASE 2-1. Our results indicate that FaMBL1 plays important roles in strawberry response to fungal diseases caused by C. fioriniae and B. cinerea.

A longitudinal study of social, religious, and spiritual capital and physical and emotional functioning in a national sample of African-Americans.

The present study builds on prior research by examining the moderating relationships between different types of capital on physical functioning, emotional functioning, and depressive symptoms using a 2.5-year longitudinal design with a national sample of African-American adults. Results indicated a significant T1 social capital × T1 religious capital interaction such that among low T1 religious capital participants, those with high T1 social capital had lower T2 physical functioning than those with lower T1 social capital. There was also a marginally significant T1 social capital × T1 spiritual capital interaction suggesting that among low T1 spiritual capital participants, those with higher T1 social capital reported a decline in depressive symptoms compared to those with lower T1 social capital. Future research and implications for intervention and policy development are discussed.

A Physics-Informed Generative Car-Following Model for Connected Autonomous Vehicles.

This paper proposes a novel hybrid car-following model: the physics-informed conditional generative adversarial network (PICGAN), designed to enhance multi-step car-following modeling in mixed traffic flow scenarios. This hybrid model leverages the strengths of both physics-based and deep-learning-based models. By taking advantage of the inherent structure of GAN, the PICGAN eliminates the need for an explicit weighting parameter typically used in the combination of traditional physics-based and data-driven models. The effectiveness of the proposed model is substantiated through case studies using the NGSIM I-80 dataset. These studies demonstrate the model's superior trajectory reproduction, suggesting its potential as a strong contender to replace conventional models in trajectory prediction tasks. Furthermore, the deployment of PICGAN significantly enhances the stability and efficiency in mixed traffic flow environments. Given its reliable and stable results, the PICGAN framework contributes substantially to the development of efficient longitudinal control strategies for connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) in real-world mixed traffic conditions.

SLC2A3 variants in familial and sporadic congenital heart diseases in a Chinese Yunnan population.

BACKGROUND: Solute carrier family 2 member 3 (SLC2A3), is a member of a superfamily of transport protein genes. SLC2A3 played an important role in embryonic development. Previous research reported SLC2A3 duplication was reportedly associated with congenital syndromic heart defects. However, it is not clear whether the gene is associated with non-syndromic congenital heart disease. Our study aimed to elucidate the relationship between its variation and congenital heart disease. METHODS: Genomic DNA extracted from the peripheral blood leukocytes of two families with CHD were sequenced with whole-exome sequencing to identify variations, used Sanger sequencing to investigate SLC2A3 variants in 494 Chinese patients with CHD and 576 healthy unrelated individuals. RESULTS: In members from the two families, three with CHD had the SLC2A3 (rs3931701) C > T variant. Of the 494 patients with CHD, 394 had gene variants (86 had the TT type and 308 had the CT type). Of the 576 healthy controls, 272 participants had gene variants (36 had the TT type and 236 had the CT type). The TT type [p < 0.0001, odds ratio (OR) =7.262, 95% confidence interval (CI) =4.631-11.388] and CT type (p < 0.0001, OR =3.967, 95% CI =2.991-5.263) of SLC2A3 (rs3931701) significantly increased the risk of sporadic ASD in a Chinese Yunnan population. CONCLUSIONS: Single nucleotide variations of SLC2A3, particularly, the SLC2A3 (rs3931701) C > T variant increased the risk of CHD among the studied population.

High recurrence rate in patients with juvenile-onset respiratory papillomatosis and its risk factors.

PURPOSE: To identify the recurrence rate and risk factors for recurrence in patients with juvenile-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (JORRP). METHODS: A retrospective review was performed for all JORRP patients who underwent surgery between 2002 and 2019 at our institution. The demographic characteristics and clinical parameters were recorded. Kaplan-Meier estimates and Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyze the rate of recurrence and its risk factors. RESULTS: Our study included 721 patients. The cumulative recurrence rates at 1, 5, and 10 postoperative years following initial surgery were 74.2%, 90.0%, and 94.3%, respectively. Age at diagnosis younger than 4.5 years (HR = 2.380, 95% CI [1.169-4.846], P = 0.017), high Derkay anatomical score (HR = 1.136, 95% CI [1.043-1.236], P = 0.003) and HPV type 11 infection (HR = 2.947, 95% CI [1.326-6.551], P = 0.008) were independent risk factors for recurrence. Adjuvant therapy with interferon was less likely to recur (HR = 0.237, 95% CI [0.091-0.616], P = 0.003). Additionally, gender, tracheotomy, mode of delivery, parity, expression of Ki-67, HPV vaccination, and surgical treatment method were not independently associated with recurrence (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Age at diagnosis younger than 4.5 years, high Derkay anatomical score and HPV type 11 infection were associated with an increased risk for recurrence in patients with JORRP. Adjuvant therapy with interferon may reduce the risk of recurrence.

Long-term outcomes of juvenile-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the adult outcomes of children with juvenile-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis via long-term follow-up. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: Beijing Tongren Hospital. PARTICIPANTS: The study includes 121 patients with recurrent respiratory papillomatosis. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURE: We followed up respiratory papillomatosis patients aged least 14 years and analysed their clinical features based on recurrence-free time. RESULTS: In total, 112 (92.6%) patients underwent three or more operations. The age at initial operation was 4.3 ± 2.9 years; 47.9% (58/121) experienced recurrence and underwent surgical treatment after age 14. At follow-up, 5% (6/121) had died, 41.3% (50/121) had been recurrence-free for 5 years or more (cured group), and 53.7% (65/121) had recurrence in the past 5 years (recurrent group). The age at the last operation was 9.2 ± 4.6 years in the cured group. The overall operation frequency was higher in the recurrence group than in the cured group (17.8 ± 11.9 vs 8.7 ± 6.5). Additionally, the human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and tracheal dissemination rates were higher in the recurrence group than in the cured group (90.8% [59/65] vs 54.0% [27/50] and 26.2% [17/65] vs 10% [5/50], respectively). CONCLUSION: The mortality rate for juvenile-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis is 5%. Approximately 50% of children experience recurrence and require repeated operations in adulthood. No significant difference in sex, age at initial operation or adjuvant therapy between the cured and recurrent groups was observed; however, significant between-group differences were found in overall operation frequency, aggressive disease, tracheal dissemination of papilloma, and HPV infection.

A longitudinal examination of social support as a mediator of the personality-health relationship in a national sample of African Americans.

The present study investigates whether social support mediates the relationship between personality traits and health among African Americans over a five-year period, filling a gap in the literature on longitudinal tests of the personality-health association. Data were collected from a national probability sample of African American adults (N = 200). Personality was assessed at Time 1 (T1), social support was assessed 2.5 years later (T2), and physical functioning was examined 5 years (T3) after T1. Telephone surveys included measures of the Five Factor Model personality traits (T1), social support (T2), and physical functioning (T3). Results suggested that relationships between the T1 personality traits and T3 physical functioning were not mediated by T2 social support. Secondary analyses found that among all T1 personality traits, higher openness and lower neuroticism uniquely predicted higher T2 social support. Further, among T1 personality traits, higher conscientiousness uniquely predicted better T3 physical functioning. This information may be useful to healthcare providers and community members in developing prevention and intervention strategies for African Americans.

Gaze Information Channel in Van Gogh's Paintings.

This paper uses quantitative eye tracking indicators to analyze the relationship between images of paintings and human viewing. First, we build the eye tracking fixation sequences through areas of interest (AOIs) into an information channel, the gaze channel. Although this channel can be interpreted as a generalization of a first-order Markov chain, we show that the gaze channel is fully independent of this interpretation, and stands even when first-order Markov chain modeling would no longer fit. The entropy of the equilibrium distribution and the conditional entropy of a Markov chain are extended with additional information-theoretic measures, such as joint entropy, mutual information, and conditional entropy of each area of interest. Then, the gaze information channel is applied to analyze a subset of Van Gogh paintings. Van Gogh artworks, classified by art critics into several periods, have been studied under computational aesthetics measures, which include the use of Kolmogorov complexity and permutation entropy. The gaze information channel paradigm allows the information-theoretic measures to analyze both individual gaze behavior and clustered behavior from observers and paintings. Finally, we show that there is a clear correlation between the gaze information channel quantities that come from direct human observation, and the computational aesthetics measures that do not rely on any human observation at all.

Multiple change point detection and validation in autoregressive time series data.

It is quite common that the structure of a time series changes abruptly. Identifying these change points and describing the model structure in the segments between these change points is of interest. In this paper, time series data is modelled assuming each segment is an autoregressive time series with possibly different autoregressive parameters. This is achieved using two main steps. The first step is to use a likelihood ratio scan based estimation technique to identify these potential change points to segment the time series. Once these potential change points are identified, modified parametric spectral discrimination tests are used to validate the proposed segments. A numerical study is conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method across various scenarios and compared against other contemporary techniques.

Gaze Information Channel in Cognitive Comprehension of Poster Reading.

Today, eye trackers are extensively used in studying human cognition. However, it is hard to analyze and interpret eye movement data from the cognitive comprehension perspective of poster reading. To find quantitative links between eye movements and cognitive comprehension, we tracked observers' eye movement for reading scientific poster publications. We model in this paper eye tracking fixation sequences between content-dependent Areas of Interests (AOIs) as a Markov chain. Furthermore, we use the fact that a Markov chain is a special case of information or communication channel. Then, the gaze transition can be modeled as a discrete information channel, the gaze information channel. Next, some traditional eye tracking metrics, together with the gaze entropy and mutual information of the gaze information channel are calculated to quantify cognitive comprehension for every participant. The analysis of the results demonstrate that the gaze entropy and mutual information from individual gaze information channel are related to participants' individual differences. This is the first study that eye tracking technology has been used to assess the cognitive comprehension of poster reading. The present work provides insights into human cognitive comprehension by using the novel gaze information channel methodology.

Pain Correlates with Sleep Disturbances in Parkinson's Disease Patients.

OBJECTIVES: Both sleep disorders and pain decrease quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, little is known about the relationship between objective sleep disturbances and pain in patients with PD. This study aimed to (1) examine the clinical characteristics of pain in PD patients and (2) explore the correlation between pain and sleep disturbances in PD patients. METHODS: Parkinson's disease patients (N = 144) underwent extensive clinical evaluations of motor and nonmotor symptoms and characteristics of pain. Overnight video-polysomnography was also conducted. Clinical characteristics and sleep parameters were compared between PD patients with or without pain. RESULTS: Pain was reported by 75 patients (52.1%), with 49 (65.3%) reporting pain of at least moderate severity. PD patients with pain were older and had longer disease duration, more severe PD symptoms as assessed by Hoehn and Yahr stage and the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, and higher L-dopa equivalent daily dose compared with PD patients without pain. PD patients with pain also showed significantly decreased sleep efficiency (57.06% ± 15.84% vs. 73.80% ± 12.00%, P < 0.001), increased nonrapid eye movement stage 1 (N1) sleep (33.38% ± 19.32% vs. 17.84% ± 8.48%, P < 0.001), and decreased rapid eye movement sleep (12.76% ± 8.24% vs. 16.06% ± 6.53%, P = 0.009). Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that poorer activities of daily living, depressed mood, higher percentage of N1 sleep, and lower sleep efficiency were independent predictors of pain in patients with PD. CONCLUSIONS: Musculoskeletal pain is the most common type of pain in patients with PD. Disrupted sleep continuity, altered sleep architecture, depressed mood, and compromised activities of daily living may be associated with pain in patients with PD.

Nucleotide and phylogenetic analysis of human papillomavirus type 11 isolated from juvenile-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis in China.

To assess the association between sequence variants of human papillomavirus (HPV) 11 and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis and the taxonomy and evolutionary history of HPV 11. Complete HPV 11 nucleotide sequences were sequenced by Illumina HiSeq2000 Analyzers and compared with the HPV 11 prototype isolate (GenBank accession number: M14119) using Blast 2.0 server software. Eighteen full-length HPV 11 genomic sequences were amplified and sequenced. A total of 49 nucleotide mutations were identified, 12 of which resulted in amino acid changes. HPV 11 variants were highly conserved; the maximum pairwise difference was approximately 0.49%. The maximum pairwise difference of the 18 variants in our research was 0.39%. HPV 11 is less polymorphic than the majority of studied HPV genotypes.

[Correlations between constipation and the axial symptoms, related motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical characteristics of Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients with constipation and explore the correlation between constipation and motor symptoms. METHODS: The demographic data of outpatients with PD in our hospital was collected. According to Rome Ⅲ criteria, we evaluated the status of constipation in PD patients. Unified Parkinson's disease rating scale part Ⅲ (UPDRSⅢ), mini-mental state examination (MMSE) were performed in all the included patients. RESULTS: Among the 158 recruited PD patients, 96 (60.8%) patients had constipation. Among these patients, 41(42.7%) patients experienced constipation before motor symptoms. Compared to those without constipation, PD patients with constipation had higher axial scores (6.8±3.4 vs 4.3±2.5, t=-4.887, P=0.000) and gait/postural stability scores (3.9±2.4 vs 2.4±1.5, t=-4.529, P=0.000), higher proportion of axial and gait/postural stability scores in UPDRSⅢ (32%±11% vs 25%±12%, t=-3.485, P=0.001; 18%±9% vs 15%±10%, t=-2.278, P=0.024), more rapid progression of axial and gait/postural stability symptoms (P<0.05). However, there were no differences in other sub-scores and progression of motor symptoms between the two groups (P>0.05). The PD patients with constipation preceding motor symptoms had higher proportion of axial and gait/postural stability scores in UPDRSⅢ (35%±11% vs 30%±10%, t=2.167, P=0.033; 21%±9% vs 16%±8%, t=2.733, P=0.008), indicating these patients may progress more rapidly, meanwhile, they had later onset age, shorter disease duration (P<0.05). Unconditioned Logistic regression showed that axial score was major influencing factor of constipation in PD patients (P=0.000, OR=1.330). CONCLUSIONS: PD patients with constipation have severer axial symptoms, indicating the progression of these patients is relatively rapid, especially those with constipation preceding motor symptoms. It is suggested that axial symptoms and constipation are acted as interactional factors in PD.

Layer-by-Layer Surface Molecular Imprinting on Polyacrylonitrile Nanofiber Mats.

Surface molecular imprinting in layer-by-layer (SMI-LbL) film is known as a facile and effective strategy to build imprinting sites that are more accessible to template molecules compared with molecular imprinting in polymers. Herein, we accomplished the formation of SMI-LbL film on electrospun nanofibers for the first time. The SMI-LbL nanofibers were prepared by a template-induced LbL process on the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber substrates, followed by postinfiltrating and photo-cross-linking of photosensitive agent 4,4'-diazostilbene-2,2'-disulfonic acid disodium salt (DAS). The obtained nanofiber mat maintained the nanofibrous structure and showed rapid absorption and extraction of template molecules of meso-tetra(4-carboxyphenyl)-porphine (Por). The binding capacity of Por reached 2.1 mg/g when 3.5 bilayers were deposited on the nanofibers. After six cycles of extraction and reabsorption, the binding capacity of Por remained at 83%. Moreover, the absorption results of the targeted templated molecule of Por and the control molecule of Fast Green, which had a very similar chemical structure and charge status to Por, indicated the specific absorption for template molecule of Por. Thus, a surface molecular imprinted nanofiber mat with high selectivity of the templated molecule has been demonstrated.

Stagewise treatment of anterior commissure laryngeal web and recurrent laryngeal papillomatosis under endoscope.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the stagewise treatment of anterior commissure laryngeal web caused by recurrent laryngeal papillomatosis. METHODS: One patient with anterior commissure laryngeal web caused by recurrent laryngeal papillomatosis underwent laryngomicrosurgery three times. At the same time of using CO2 laser to remove papilloma, we performed vocal cord mucosal flap repair and suture. RESULTS: After 1 year following up, laryngeal papilloma did not recur and the voice quality of the patient significantly improved with no wheezing sound. CONCLUSION: This method can resolve the problem of recurrence and adhesion in laryngeal papilloma.

Application of conditional generative adversarial network to multi-step car-following modeling.

Car-following modeling is essential in the longitudinal control for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). Considering the advantage of the generative adversarial network (GAN) in capturing realistic data distribution, this paper applies conditional GAN (CGAN) to car-following modeling. The generator is elaborately designed with a sequence-to-sequence structure to reflect the decision-making process of human driving behavior. The proposed model is trained and tested based on the empirical dataset, and it is compared with a supervised learning model and a mathematical model. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify the model's performance, especially in the condition of mixed traffic flow. The comparison result shows that the CGAN model outperforms others in trajectory reproduction, indicating it can effectively imitate human driving behavior. The simulation results suggest that the introduction of CGAN-based CAVs improves the stability and efficiency of the mixed traffic flow.

Applications of CRISPR/Cas genome editing in economically important fruit crops: recent advances and future directions.

Fruit crops, consist of climacteric and non-climacteric fruits, are the major sources of nutrients and fiber for human diet. Since 2013, CRISPR/Cas (Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats and CRISPR-Associated Protein) genome editing system has been widely employed in different plants, leading to unprecedented progress in the genetic improvement of many agronomically important fruit crops. Here, we summarize latest advancements in CRISPR/Cas genome editing of fruit crops, including efforts to decipher the mechanisms behind plant development and plant immunity, We also highlight the potential challenges and improvements in the application of genome editing tools to fruit crops, including optimizing the expression of CRISPR/Cas cassette, improving the delivery efficiency of CRISPR/Cas reagents, increasing the specificity of genome editing, and optimizing the transformation and regeneration system. In addition, we propose the perspectives on the application of genome editing in crop breeding especially in fruit crops and highlight the potential challenges. It is worth noting that efforts to manipulate fruit crops with genome editing systems are urgently needed for fruit crops breeding and demonstration.

Mixed traffic flow of human-driven vehicles and connected autonomous vehicles: String stability and fundamental diagram.

The introduction of connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) gives rise to mixed traffic flow on the roadway, and the coexistence of human-driven vehicles (HVs) and CAVs may last for several decades. CAVs are expected to improve the efficiency of mixed traffic flow. In this paper, the car-following behavior of HVs is modeled by the intelligent driver model (IDM) based on actual trajectory data. The cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) model from the PATH laboratory is adopted for the car-following model of CAVs. The string stability of mixed traffic flow is analyzed for different market penetration rates of CAVs, showing that CAVs can effectively prevent stop-and-go waves from forming and propagating. In addition, the fundamental diagram is obtained from the equilibrium state, and the flow-density chart indicates that CAVs can improve the capacity of mixed traffic flow. Furthermore, the periodic boundary condition is designed for numerical simulation according to the infinite length platoon assumption in the analytical approach. The simulation results are consistent with the analytical solutions, suggesting the validity of the string stability and fundamental diagram analysis of mixed traffic flow.

The enhanced photocatalytic and photothermal effects of Ti3C2 Mxene quantum dot/macroscopic porous graphitic carbon nitride heterojunction for Hydrogen Production.

A new heterostructure between Ti3C2 MXene quantum dot and 3D macroscopic porous graphitic carbon nitride (PGCN) was successfully obtained by integrating Ti3C2 quantum dots onto porous graphitized carbon nitride (Ti3C2QDs/PGCN) using in situ electrostatic self-assembly techniques. The photocatalytic H2 evolution rate of optimized 5.5 wt% Ti3C2 QD/PGCN composites is nearly 15.24 and 3.53 times higher than pristine CN, and PGCN, respectively. Ti3C2 quantum dots can significantly enhance the hydrogen production activity of PGCN. In addition, their good photothermal conversion ability accelerates the overall reaction process and enhances the light absorption and carrier density. Furthermore, to elucidate the photocatalytic mechanism, a series of tests involving electron spin resonance (ESR) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed. The results confirmed that the Schottky barrier between PGCN and Ti3C2 QD can effectively promote spatial charge separation and significantly improve the photocatalytic performance. This work provides a new approach for the construction of photocatalytic systems and the application of MXene QD.