Using Text Mining and Data Visualization Approaches for Investigating Mental Illness from the Perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Background and Objectives. Anxiety and depressive disorders are the most prevalent mental disorders, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are suffering from anxiety and depressive disorders, and a considerable fraction of COVID-19 survivors have a variety of persistent neuropsychiatric problems after the initial infection. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers a different perspective on mental disorders from Western biomedicine. Effective management of mental disorders has become an increasing concern in recent decades due to the high social and economic costs involved. This study attempts to express and ontologize the relationships between different mental disorders and physical organs from the perspective of TCM, so as to bridge the gap between the unique terminology used in TCM and a medical professional. Materials and Methods. Natural language processing (NLP) is introduced to quantify the importance of different mental disorder descriptions relative to the five depots and two palaces, stomach and gallbladder, through the classical medical text Huangdi Neijing and construct a mental disorder ontology based on the TCM classic text. Results. The results demonstrate that our proposed framework integrates NLP and data visualization, enabling clinicians to gain insights into mental health, in addition to biomedicine. According to the results of the relationship analysis of mental disorders, depots, palaces, and symptoms, the organ/depot most related to mental disorders is the heart, and the two most important emotion factors associated with mental disorders are anger and worry & think. The mental disorders described in TCM are related to more than one organ (depot/palace). Conclusion. This study complements recent research delving into co-relations or interactions between mental status and other organs and systems.

Ultrasensitive Magnetic Nanoparticle Detector for Biosensor Applications.

Ta/Ru/Co/Ru/Co/Cu/Co/Ni80Fe20/Ta spin-valve giant magnetoresistive (GMR) multilayers were deposited using UHV magnetron sputtering and optimized to achieve a 13% GMR ratio before patterning. The GMR multilayer was patterned into 12 sensor arrays using a combination of e-beam and optical lithographies. Arrays were constructed with 400 nm × 400 nm and 400 nm × 200 nm sensors for the detection of reporter nanoparticles. Nanoparticle detection was based on measuring the shift in high-to-low resistance switching field of the GMR sensors in the presence of magnetic particle(s). Due to shape anisotropy and the corresponding demag field, the resistance state switching fields were significantly larger and the switching field distribution significantly broader in the 400 nm × 200 nm sensors as compared to the 400 nm × 400 nm sensors. Thus, sensor arrays with 400 nm × 400 nm dimensions were used for the demonstration of particle detection. Detection of a single 225 nm Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticle and a small number (~10) of 100 nm nanoparticles was demonstrated. With appropriate functionalization for biomolecular recognition, submicron GMR sensor arrays can serve as the basis of ultrasensitive chemical and biological sensors.

Do age-related changes contribute to the flanker effect?

OBJECTIVES: The present study examined age-related changes in the flanker effect and the extent to which age interacts with flanker-induced differences in perceptual processing, which contribute to the flanker effect. METHODS: We adopted a modified flanker-task paradigm that incorporates PRO (i.e., hand responses correspond to target arrows) and ANTI (i.e., hand responses do not correspond to target arrows) conditions. Participants from two age groups searched for a centrally presented target flanked on each side by stimuli that were associated with either the same response as the target (congruent), the opposite response (incongruent), or neither response (neutral). Event-related potentials (ERPs), lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs), and behavioral performance were measured. RESULTS: The behavioral-data results showed that a typical flanker effect was present in both age groups in PRO and ANTI conditions, suggesting that flanker-induced differences in perceptual processing contributed to the flanker effect in a similar manner for both age groups. Furthermore, no increase in flanker interference was observed in older adults. LRP profiles also provided convergent evidence showing that perceptually based flanker effects were similar for both age groups. CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that aging does not increase flanker interference, nor does it alter perceptually based flanker interference. SIGNIFICANCE: The present study found that older adults could be just as capable as younger adults in resolving flanker interference by adopting different strategies to compensate for their deficiencies.