Aim To explore the altered spontaneous cerebral activity patterns and impaired functional regions in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging ...(rs-fMRI) based on the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) algorithm. Materials and methods Twenty-one patients with DR (mean age, 54.9±9.9 years; 11 females) and 17 healthy control subjects (54.8±5.7 years; 9 females) were prospectively studied. The DR patients underwent laboratory tests. All individuals underwent a neuropsychological test. The differences in the ALFF values between the two groups were compared. The relationships between ALFF values and clinical measurements were analysed using a multiple-factor analysis. Results Compared to the controls, the DR group showed significantly increased ALFF values in the bilateral occipital gyrus, right lingual gyrus, and precuneus, and decreased values in the right posterior/anterior cerebellar lobe and the parahippocampal, fusiform, superior temporal, inferior parietal, and angular gyrus. Furthermore, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores were negatively correlated with decreased ALFF values in the right occipital lobe of the DR group, while increased ALFF values in the right precuneus and lingual gyrus were found to be positively correlated with glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels. Conclusions Patients with DR showed spontaneous cerebral activity abnormalities in many cerebral regions that were associated with cognitive impairments. HbA1c levels altered spontaneous cerebral activity in DR patients.
► ET were measured for three years using EC and LAS at three sites over a basin. ► The seasonal and interannual variations of observed ET at two scales were analyzed. ► ET differences among the years ...and sites, from EC and LAS measurements were analyzed. ► ET measurements were compared to field water balance calculations and MODIS products.
Evapotranspiration (ET) observations were made for 3years (2008–2010), using eddy covariance (EC) systems and large aperture scintillometers (LAS), in typical underlying surfaces across the Hai River Basin: orchards (Miyun, MY), cropland in the suburbs (Daxing, DX), and cropland in the plains (Guantao, GT). Reliable data were obtained after carefully data processing, and the seasonal and interannual variability in ET was quantitatively analyzed. The annual ET during 2008–2010 ranged from 510–730mm for the EC measurements and 430–560mm for the LAS measurements. The differences in ET among the years and sites were connected with differences in soil moisture and crop growing conditions. The difference in the source areas of EC and LAS measurements and the heterogeneity in their source areas are the primary causes of the discrepancy between EC and LAS measurements. The EC and LAS measurements are compared to the field water balance method calculation and MOD16 ET (the MODIS ET product from the MODIS Global Evapotranspiration Project), respectively. The average difference was 0.85% (mean relative error) and 33.80mm (root mean square error) between the EC measurements and field water balance method calculations, and 7.72% and 47.08mm between LAS measurements and MOD16 ET from 2008 to 2010 at the three sites. We found a decreasing tendency for ET in the past 15years across the Hai River Basin, especially after the year of 2005.
The single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs2235371 (IRF6 V274I) is associated with nonsyndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCL/P) in Han Chinese and other populations but appears to be ...without a functional effect. To find the common etiologic variant or variants within the haplotype tagged by rs2235371, we carried out targeted sequencing of an interval containing IRF6 in 159 Han Chinese with NSCL/P. This study revealed that the SNP rs12403599, within the IRF6 promoter, is associated with all phenotypes of NSCL/P, especially nonsyndromic cleft lip (NSCLO) and a subphenotype of it, microform cleft lip (MCL). This association was replicated in 2 additional much larger cohorts of cases and controls from the Han Chinese. Conditional logistic analysis indicated that association of rs2235371 with NSCL/P was lost if rs12403599 was excluded. rs12403599 contributes the most risk to MCL: its G allele is responsible for 38.47% of the genetic contribution to MCL, and the odds ratios of G/C and G/G genotypes were 2.91 and 6.58, respectively, for MCL. To test if rs12403599 is functional, we carried out reporter assays in a fetal oral epithelium cells (GMSM-K). Unexpectedly, the risk allele G yielded higher promoter activity in GMSM-K. Consistent with the reporter studies, expression of IRF6 in lip tissues from NSCLO and MCL patients with the G/G phenotype was higher than in those from patients with the C/C phenotype. These results indicate that rs12403599 is tagging the risk haplotype for NSCL/P better than rs2235371 in Han Chinese and supports investigation of the mechanisms by which the allele of rs12403599 affects IRF6 expression and tests of this association in different populations.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration radio transients of unknown physical origin observed at extragalactic distances
. It has long been speculated that magnetars are the engine powering ...repeating bursts from FRB sources
, but no convincing evidence has been collected so far
. Recently, the Galactic magnetar SRG 1935+2154 entered an active phase by emitting intense soft γ-ray bursts
. One FRB-like event with two peaks (FRB 200428) and a luminosity slightly lower than the faintest extragalactic FRBs was detected from the source, in association with a soft γ-ray/hard-X-ray flare
. Here we report an eight-hour targeted radio observational campaign comprising four sessions and assisted by multi-wavelength (optical and hard-X-ray) data. During the third session, 29 soft-γ-ray repeater (SGR) bursts were detected in γ-ray energies. Throughout the observing period, we detected no single dispersed pulsed emission coincident with the arrivals of SGR bursts, but unfortunately we were not observing when the FRB was detected. The non-detection places a fluence upper limit that is eight orders of magnitude lower than the fluence of FRB 200428. Our results suggest that FRB-SGR burst associations are rare. FRBs may be highly relativistic and geometrically beamed, or FRB-like events associated with SGR bursts may have narrow spectra and characteristic frequencies outside the observed band. It is also possible that the physical conditions required to achieve coherent radiation in SGR bursts are difficult to satisfy, and that only under extreme conditions could an FRB be associated with an SGR burst.
In China, ethnic minorities often live in frontier areas and have a relatively small population size, and tremendous social transitions have enlarged the gap between eastern and western China, with ...western China being home to 44 ethnic minority groups. These three disadvantages have health impacts. Examining ethnicity and health inequality in the context of western China is therefore essential.
This paper is based on data from the 2010 China Survey of Social Change (CSSC2010), which was conducted in 12 provinces, autonomous regions and province-level municipalities in western China and had a sample size of 10,819. We examined self-rated health and disparities in self-rated health between ethnic minorities and Han Chinese in the context of western China. Self-rated health was coded as poor or good, and ethnicity was coded as ethnic minority or Han Chinese. Ethnic differences in self-rated health was examined by using binary logistic regression. Associations among sociodemographic variables, SES variable, health behaviour variable, health problem variables and self-rated health were also explored.
Fourteen percent of respondents reported their health to be poor. A total of 15.75% of ethnic minorities and 13.43% of Han Chinese respondents reported their health to be poor, indicating a difference in self-rated health between ethnic minorities and Han Chinese. Age, gender, marital status, education, alcohol, and health problems were the main factors that affected differences in self-rated health.
In western China, there were obvious ethnic disparities in self-rated health. Elderly ethnic minorities, non-partnered ethnic minorities, ethnic minorities with an educational level lower than middle school, and ethnic minorities with chronic disease had higher odds of poor self-rated health.
Summary
Our study focused on the associations of metabolites with BMD and osteoporosis, finding that several metabolites are associated with BMD, and metabolites combined with bone turnover markers ...tend to be more sensitive in distinguishing osteoporosis in both males and postmenopausal females, which might be meaningful for the early diagnosis of osteoporosis.
Introduction
Our study aimed to evaluate the association of metabolites with bone, trying to find new metabolic markers that are distinguishing for low bone mineral density (BMD).
Methods
Our study recruited 320 participants, including 138 males and 182 postmenopausal females from the Shanghai area. Bone turnover markers (BTMs), including osteocalcin, PINP and β-CTX, and other biochemical traits were tested. BMD values of the lumber spine (L1–4), femoral neck and total hip were determined using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and the serum metabolome profiles including 221 metabolites from five groups (acylcarnitines, amino acids, biogenic amines, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids and hexose) were assessed by mass spectrometry.
Results
No visual separation in the metabolic profiles between different BMD groups was observed in principal component analysis (PCA) or partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models. We compared metabolites in three groups with different BMD levels in males and postmenopausal females separately and further filtering these metabolites via random forest-based feature selection, a commonly applied machine learning algorithm which could select the features with the greatest impact on osteoporosis, then metabolites with the highest importance (≥ 5%) (5 in males and 9 in postmenopausal females) were selected to construct better models for osteoporosis classification. After adding these selected metabolites to the model, the area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves increased significantly (BTMs: AUC 0.729, 95% CI 0.647–0.802,
p
< 0.0001, model 1: AUC = 0.828, 95% CI 0.754–0.888,
p
< 0.0001; model 1 versus model of BTMs:
p
= 0.0158) compared to the AUC of the BTM-only model in males. Similar results were also observed in postmenopausal females (BTMs: AUC = 0.638, 95% CI 0.562–0.708,
p
= 0.0025; model 2: AUC = 0.741, 95% CI 0.669–0.803,
p
< 0.0001; model 1 versus model of BTMs:
p
= 0.0182).
Conclusion
Metabolites combined with traditional BTMs tend to better markers for distinguishing osteoporosis in both males and postmenopausal females than BTMs alone.
CeF3, CeF3:Tb3+, and CeF3:Tb3+/LaF3 (core/shell) nanoparticles were prepared by the polyol method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray ...photoelectron spectra (XPS), UV−vis absorption spectra, photoluminescence (PL) spectra, and lifetimes. The results of XRD indicate that the obtained CeF3, CeF3:Tb3+, and CeF3:Tb3+/LaF3 (core/shell) nanoparticles crystallized well at 200 °C in diethylene glycol (DEG) with a hexagonal structure. The TEM images illustrate that the CeF3 and CeF3:Tb3+ nanoparticles are spherical with a mean diameter of 7 nm. The growth of the LaF3 shell around the CeF3:Tb3+ core nanoparticles resulted in an increase of the average size (11 nm) of the nanopaticles as well as in a broadening of their size distribution. These nanocrystals can be well-dispersed in ethanol to form clear colloidal solutions. The colloidal solutions of CeF3 and CeF3:Tb3+ show the characteristic emission of Ce3+ 5d−4f (320 nm) and Tb3+ 5D4−7FJ (J = 6−3, with 5D4−7F5 green emission at 542 nm as the strongest one) transitions, respectively. The emission intensity and lifetime of the CeF3:Tb3+/LaF3 (core/shell) nanoparticles increased with respect to those of CeF3:Tb3+ core particles. This indicates that a significant amount of nonradiative centers existing on the surface of CeF3:Tb3+ nanoparticles can be eliminated by the shielding effect of LaF3 shells. Finally, the energy transfer from Ce3+ to Tb3+ was investigated in CeF3:Tb3+ nanoparticles in detail.
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection is ubiquitous worldwide and is associated with multiple cancers, including nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The importance of EBV viral genomic variation in NPC ...development and its striking epidemic in southern China has been poorly explored. Through large-scale genome sequencing of 270 EBV isolates and two-stage association study of EBV isolates from China, we identify two non-synonymous EBV variants within BALF2 that are strongly associated with the risk of NPC (odds ratio (OR) = 8.69, P = 9.69 × 10
for SNP 162476_C; OR = 6.14, P = 2.40 × 10
for SNP 163364_T). The cumulative effects of these variants contribute to 83% of the overall risk of NPC in southern China. Phylogenetic analysis of the risk variants reveals a unique origin in Asia, followed by clonal expansion in NPC-endemic regions. Our results provide novel insights into the NPC endemic in southern China and also enable the identification of high-risk individuals for NPC prevention.
Nickel nanospheres, nanowires, and nanoflowers are synthesized via a facile non‐aqueous sol–gel route involving the reaction of nickel acetylacetonate with benzyl alcohol at 200 °C in the presence of ...varying magnetic fields, as illustrated in the figure. Benzyl alcohol acts as both the solvent and reductant in this system. The nanostructures show substantial enhancement in coercivity as compared to bulk nickel.
To determine if increasing delivery room temperature to that recommended by the World Health Organization results in increased admission temperatures of preterm infants.
Admission rectal temperatures ...of newborns ≤32 weeks gestation delivered in rooms with temperature set at 24 to 26 °C were compared with those of similar newborns delivered in rooms with temperature set at 20 to 23 °C.
Premature newborns delivered in rooms with mean temperature 25.1±0.6 °C (n=43), compared with those delivered in rooms with mean temperature 22.5±0.6 °C (n=48), had a lower incidence (34.9% vs 68.8%, P<0.01) of admission rectal temperature <36 °C and higher admission rectal temperatures (36.0±0.9 °C vs 35.5±0.8 °C, P<0.01). This difference persisted after adjustment for birth weight and 5 min Apgar score.
Increasing delivery room temperatures to that recommended by the World Health Organization decreases cold stress in premature newborns.
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