[Microtubule-associated tumor suppressor 1 inhibits hemin-induced apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells via hemeoxygenase 1].

This study aimed to investigate the effects of microtubule associated tumor suppressor 1 (MTUS1) on hemeoxygenase 1 (HMOX1) expression and hemin-induced apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells and its regulatory mechanism. RNA sequencing, RT-qPCR and Western blot were used to assess altered genes of hemin binding proteins, the expression of cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) and nuclear respiratory factor 2 (NRF2), hemin-induced HMOX1 expression in MTUS1 knockdown human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), and the effect of overexpression of CREB and NRF2 on HMOX1 expression in MTUS1 knockdown 293T cells. The effect of MTUS1 or HMOX1 knockdown on hemin-induced apoptosis in HUVEC, and the overexpression of NRF2 on hemin-induced apoptosis in MTUS1 knockdown 293T cells were assayed with CCK8 and Western blot. The results showed that MTUS1 was knocked down significantly in HUVEC by siRNA (P < 0.01), accompanied by decreased HMOX1 expression (P < 0.01). The increased HMOX1 expression induced by hemin was also inhibited by MTUS1 knockdown (P < 0.01). And the apoptosis of HUVEC induced by hemin was amplified by MTUS1 or HMOX1 knockdown (P < 0.01). Moreover the expression of CREB and NRF2 were both inhibited by MTUS1 knockdown in HUVEC (P < 0.01). The decreased HMOX1 regulated by MTUS1 knockdown could be rescued partly by overexpression of NRF2 (P < 0.01), however, not by overexpression of CREB. And the MTUS1 knockdown mediated decreased 293T cells viability induced by hemin could be partly rescued by NRF2 overexpression (P < 0.01). These results suggest that MTUS1 can inhibit hemin-induced apoptosis of HUVEC, and the mechanism maybe related to MTUS1/NRF2/HMOX1 pathway.

The influence of congruency proportion, target eccentricity, and valence strength on the spatial-valence metaphoric congruency effect in a word valence judgment task.

In a word valence judgment task, positive words (e.g., excellence) are judged faster when presented at the top (congruent position) than at the bottom of the screen (incongruent position), whereas the opposite pattern occurs for negative words (e.g., disaster). This spatial-valence metaphoric congruency effect reflects top-positive/bottom-negative metaphoric association and may be attributed to at least three possible mechanisms: spreading activation between spatial and valence concepts (activation account), epistemic function that a conceptual metaphor serves to reduce the uncertainty associated with valence concepts (epistemic account), and/or the extent to which spatial-valence metaphoric association is relevant to task demand (relevance account). In three experiments, we manipulated congruency proportion, target eccentricity, and valence strength in a word valence judgment task to test these three possible accounts. Results showed that the metaphoric congruency effect was larger when a high (vs. equal) proportion of targets appears in congruent, relative to incongruent, position, and for targets with strong (vs. weak) valence. However, the effect in reaction time measure was not modulated by whether the target appeared in the position being near vs. far away from the center of the screen. The overall findings are better accommodated by the relevance account. The implications of the current findings on other theoretical accounts, such as Conceptual Metaphor Theory and polarity correspondence account, are also discussed.

No evidence for the influence of head-heart conceptual metaphor on moral decision making and personality.

In English, head is associated with rationality and logic, whereas heart is related to feeling and emotionality. In Chinese, these head- and heart-related metaphors also exist. Could these head- and heart-related conceptual metaphors influence people's moral decision-making and personality? This seems so based on the previous findings that (a) simply pointing an index finger to heart (versus head) position caused participants to produce more emotional responses in a moral decision task, and (b) participants who believed themselves to be heart locators, relative to those who regarded themselves as head locators, scored higher in affect intensity, femininity, and intimacy related activities. The current study attempted to replicate these findings, following the same design and procedure of previous work, with Chinese participants from Hong Kong and Chinese mainland. In Experiments 1a and 1b, 203 participants performed the moral decision task on dilemmas with their index fingers pointing to head or heart. In Experiments 2a and 2b, 304 participants completed the scales of self-location, affective intensity, femininity, and intimacy related activities. In these high-powered experiments, we failed to replicate the findings of previous work. Bayesian analyses further showed that no head- and heart-related conceptual metaphor effect was likely to occur. Potential reasons for our inconsistent results with those of previous studies and the implications of our current findings were discussed.

Tanshinone IIA regulates expression of glucose transporter 1 via activation of the HIF­1α signaling pathway.

Tanshinone IIA (Tan 2A) is a lipid­soluble compound extracted from the Chinese herb Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge). It protects neuron and microvascular endothelial cells against hypoxia/ischemia both in vitro and in vivo however the mechanism is not fully known. Glucose transporter 1 (GLUT­1) is ubiquitously expressed in all types of tissue in the human body and serves important physiological functions due to its glucose uptake ability. The present study evaluated the role of Tan 2A in regulating GLUT­1 expression and its potential mechanism. RT­PCR and western Blot were used to detect the expression of GLUT­1. Si RNA mediated knockdown and CHIP assay were used to explore the mechanism of Tan 2A on GLUT­1expression. Tan 2A treatment induced expression of GLUT­1 and subsequently increased glucose uptake in endothelial cells (ECs). Furthermore, mRNA expression levels of vascular endothelial cell growth factor, BCL2 interacting protein 3 and enolase 2, which are target genes for hypoxia­inducible factor­1α (HIF­1α), were significantly upregulated by Tan 2A. Co­immunoprecipitation demonstrated that Tan 2A markedly increased the association of HIF­1α with recombination signal­binding protein for immunoglobulin κJ region (RBPJκ). Moreover, knockdown of HIF­1α and RBPJκ significantly reversed the regulatory effect of Tan 2A on mRNA expression levels of these genes in ECs. The results of the present study suggested that HIF­1α partially mediated the regulatory effect of Tan 2A on GLUT­1 expression in ECs. Therefore, GLUT­1 may be a potential therapeutic target for Tan 2A.

Application of evidence-based nursing in patients with acute myocardial infarction complicated with heart failure.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the application of evidence-based nursing (EBN) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) complicated with heart failure. METHODS: A total of 76 patients with acute myocardial infarction complicated with heart failure after Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Intervention (PCI) were admitted to the Department of Cardiology of our hospital from April 2018 to October 2019 and randomly divided into the control group and the experimental group, with 38 patients in each group. The control group received routine nursing and the experimental group received EBN nursing. Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) scores, quality of life, long-term treatment efficacy, and nursing satisfaction in the two groups before and after nursing were compared and analyzed. RESULTS: In terms of SAS and SDS, the experimental group after nursing had remarkably lower scores than the control group (t=6.468, 4.025, all P < 0.001). The quality-of-life scores of patients in both groups after nursing were better, and the increase in the experimental group was more evident (all P < 0.05). Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (LVEF) in the experimental group was significantly higher compared with the control group (t=2.480, P < 0.05), while Left Ventricular Diastolic Diameter (LVDd) and Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) were significantly lower (t=3.824, 12.241, all P < 0.001). Considering the total nursing satisfaction, the experimental group demonstrated a higher satisfaction rate (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: EBN is beneficial for patients with AMI complicated with heart failure, and it is worth being popularized in clinical nursing.

The Taste of Emotion: Metaphoric Association Between Taste Words and Emotion/Emotion-Laden Words.

According to the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, abstract concepts can be metaphorically associated with more concrete, physically embodied concepts, such as gustatory experience. Studies on taste-emotion metaphoric association reported that people associate love with sweet, jealousy with sour and bitter, and sadness with bitter. However, few studies have systematically examined the metaphoric association between taste and words referred to emotion (e.g., "sad") or emotion-laden concepts (e.g., "funeral"). In the current four studies (total N = 357), we examined this metaphoric association by having participants come up with a taste word when reading an emotion and emotion-laden word (Study 1-explicit association of taste words-to-emotion/emotion-laden words), come up with an emotion word when reading taste words (Study 2-explicit association of emotion words-to-taste words), rate the association between taste words and basic or non-basic emotion words (Study 3), and rate the association between taste words and a more expanded pool of emotion/emotion-laden words (Study 4). Results showed that sweet was mostly associated with positive emotion and emotion-laden words, whereas bitter, followed by sour and spicy, was mostly associated with negative emotion and emotion-laden words. The bidirectionality of taste-emotion metaphoric association was supported by our dataset. The implications of these findings on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and embodied cognition are discussed.

The Impact of Bodily States on Divergent Thinking: Evidence for a Control-Depletion Account.

Given previous evidence that bodily states can impact basic cognitive processes, we asked whether such impact can also be demonstrated for creative cognition. In particular, we had participants perform a design improvement task and a consequences imagination task while standing up, walking in a predetermined pattern, or walking freely. Results show better divergent-thinking performance with unconstrained than with constrained walking, and better performance for walking than for standing. A second experiment assessed performance in an alternative uses task and a figural combination task while participants were lying, sitting, or standing. Results showed better performance when standing up than when lying or sitting. Taken altogether, these observations provide evidence for an approach in terms of cognitive-control depletion: the more a bodily activity exhausts control resources, the better divergent thinking can unfold, presumably because reduced top-down control brings more ideas into play.