With advances in connectomics, transcriptome and neurophysiological technologies, the neuroscience of brain-wide neural circuits is poised to take off. A major challenge is to understand how a vast ...diversity of functions is subserved by parcellated areas of mammalian neocortex composed of repetitions of a canonical local circuit. Areas of the cerebral cortex differ from each other not only in their input-output patterns but also in their biological properties. Recent experimental and theoretical work has revealed that such variations are not random heterogeneities; rather, synaptic excitation and inhibition display systematic macroscopic gradients across the entire cortex, and they are abnormal in mental illness. Quantitative differences along these gradients can lead to qualitatively novel behaviours in non-linear neural dynamical systems, by virtue of a phenomenon mathematically described as bifurcation. The combination of macroscopic gradients and bifurcations, in tandem with biological evolution, development and plasticity, provides a generative mechanism for functional diversity among cortical areas, as a general principle of large-scale cortical organization.
The interest in the fabrication of electrochemical biosensors with high sensitivity, selectivity and efficiency is rapidly growing. In recent years, noble metal nanoparticles (NMNPs), with ...extraordinary conductivity, large surface-to-volume ratio and biocompatibility, have been extensively employed for developing novel electrochemical sensing platforms and improving their performances. Through distinct surface modification strategies (e.g. self-assembly, layer-by-layer, hybridization and sol-gel technology), NMNPs provide well control over the microenvironment of biological molecules retaining their activity, and facilitate the electron transfer between the redox center of biomolecules and electrode surface. Moreover, NMNPs have been involved into biorecognition events (e.g. immunoreactions, DNA hybridization and ligand-receptor interactions) by conjugating with various biomolecules, chemical labels and other nanomaterials, achieving the signal transduction and amplification. The aim of this review is to summarize different strategies for NMNP-based signal amplification, as well as to provide a snapshot of recent advances in the design of electrochemical biosensing platforms, including enzyme/protein sensors focused on their direct electrochemistry on NMNP-modified electrode surface; immunosensors and gene sensors in which NMNPs not only participate into biorecognition, but also act as electroactive tags to enhance the signal output. In addition, NMNP alloy-based multifunctional electrochemical biosensors are briefly introduced in terms of their unique heterostructures and properties.
Figure
With the co-modification of hemoglobin and multi-layers of gold nanoparticles onto the gold electrode surface, gold nanoparticles facilitate the electron transfer between hemoglobin and electrode. As a result, the direct electrochemistry of hemoglobin could be obtained.
Psychological health problems, especially emotional disorders, are common among adolescents. The epidemiology of emotional disorders is greatly influenced by stressful events. This study sought to ...assess the prevalence rate and socio-demographic correlates of depressive and anxiety symptoms among Chinese adolescents affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. We conducted a cross-sectional study among Chinese students aged 12–18 years during the COVID-19 epidemic period. An online survey was used to conduct rapid assessment. A total of 8079 participants were involved in the study. An online survey was used to collect demographic data, assess students’ awareness of COVID-19, and assess depressive and anxiety symptoms with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire, respectively. The prevalence of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and a combination of depressive and anxiety symptoms was 43.7%, 37.4%, and 31.3%, respectively, among Chinese high school students during the COVID-19 outbreak. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that female gender was the higher risk factor for depressive and anxiety symptoms. In terms of grades, senior high school was a risk factor for depressive and anxiety symptoms; the higher the grade, the greater the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Our findings show there is a high prevalence of psychological health problems among adolescents, which are negatively associated with the level of awareness of COVID-19. These findings suggest that the government needs to pay more attention to psychological health among adolescents while combating COVID-19.
With consideration of uncertainty in the distributed manufacturing systems, this paper addresses a multi-objective fuzzy distributed hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with fuzzy processing times ...and fuzzy due dates. To optimize the fuzzy total tardiness and robustness simultaneously, a cooperative coevolution algorithm with problem-specific strategies is proposed by reasonably combining the estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) and the iterated greedy (IG) search. In the EDA-mode search, a problem-specific probability model is established to reduce the solution space and a sample mechanism is proposed to generate new individuals. To enhance exploitation, a specific local search is designed to improve performance of non-dominated solutions. Moreover, destruction and reconstruction methods in the IG-mode search are employed for further exploiting better solutions. To balance exploration and exploitation capabilities, a cooperation scheme for mode switching is designed based on the information entropy and the diversity of elite solutions. The effect of the key parameters on the performances of the proposed algorithm is investigated by Taguchi design of experiment method. Comparative results and statistical analysis demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in solving the problem.
•Multi-objective fuzzy distributed hybrid flow shop scheduling is addressed.•Estimation of distribution algorithm and iterated greedy are cooperated.•Probability model and sample mechanism are designed.•Problem-specific local search is designed.•Information entropy and diversity are used to design cooperation scheme.
With increasing environmental awareness and energy requirement, sustainable manufacturing has attracted growing attention. Meanwhile, distributed manufacturing systems have become emerging due to the ...development of globalization. This article addresses the energy-aware distributed hybrid flow-shop scheduling (EADHFSP) with minimization of makespan and energy consumption simultaneously. We present a mixed-integer linear programming model and propose a cooperative memetic algorithm (CMA) with a reinforcement learning (RL)-based policy agent. First, an encoding scheme and a reasonable decoding method are designed, considering the tradeoff between two conflicting objectives. Second, two problem-specific heuristics are presented for hybrid initialization to generate diverse solutions. Third, solutions are refined with appropriate improvement operator selected by the RL-based policy agent. Meanwhile, an effective solution selection method based on the decomposition strategy is utilized to balance the convergence and diversity. Fourth, an intensification search with multiple problem-specific operators is incorporated to further enhance the exploitation capability. Moreover, two energy-saving strategies are designed for improving the nondominated solutions. The effect of parameter setting is investigated and extensive numerical tests are carried out. The comparative results demonstrate that the special designs are effective and the CMA is superior to the existing algorithms in solving the EADHFSP.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a dominant cause of death and permanent disability worldwide. Although TBI could significantly increase the proliferation of adult neural stem cells in the ...hippocampus, the survival and maturation of newborn cells is markedly low. Increasing evidence suggests that the secretome derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) would be an ideal alternative to MSC transplantation. The successive and microenvironmentally responsive secretion in MSCs may be critical for the functional benefits provided by transplanted MSCs after TBI. Therefore, it is reasonable to hypothesize that the signaling molecules secreted in response to local tissue damage can further facilitate the therapeutic effect of the MSC secretome. To simulate the complex microenvironment in the injured brain well, we used traumatically injured brain tissue extracts to pretreat umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) in vitro and stereotaxically injected the secretome from traumatic injury‐preconditioned UCMSCs into the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus in a rat severe TBI model. The results revealed that compared with the normal secretome, the traumatic injury‐preconditioned secretome could significantly further promote the differentiation, migration, and maturation of newborn cells in the dentate gyrus and ultimately improve cognitive function after TBI. Cytokine antibody array suggested that the increased benefits of secretome administration were attributable to the newly produced proteins and up‐regulated molecules from the MSC secretome preconditioned by a traumatically injured microenvironment. Our study utilized the traumatic injury‐preconditioned secretome to amplify neurogenesis and improve cognitive recovery, suggesting this method may be a novel and safer candidate for nerve repair.
Cover Image for this issue: doi: 10.1111/jnc.14741
To most closely replicate the complex microenvironment in injured brain, we used extract of traumatic brain tissue to preconditioning umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in vitro, and stereotaxically injected these secretome into dentate gyrus of hippocampus in a rat severe Traumatic brain injury (TBI) model. We observed that traumatically preconditioning secretome could significantly further promote the differentiation, migration and maturation of newborn cells in dentate gyrus, and finally improved the cognitive function after TBI. Our study utilized the injury‐preconditioning secretome to inducibly amplify the neurogenesis and cognitive recovery, which can offers a novel and safer candidate for nerve repair.
Open Science: This manuscript was awarded with the Open Materials Badge
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Cover Image for this issue: doi: 10.1111/jnc.14741
Abstract
Highly efficient Fe
3+
-activated Sr
2-
y
Ca
y
(InSb)
1-
z
Sn
2
z
O
6
broadband near-infrared-emitting phosphors with tunable emission from 885 to 1005 nm are developed as alternative for ...primarily studed toxic Cr
3+
-activated near-infrared-emitting phosphors for application in spectroscopy analysis.
We use the path-integral formula and investigate some dynamical quantum effects induced by the inspiraling lateral corrugation of orbital plane in gravitationally bound neutron star (NS) binaries, ...with orbital separation of 109 m. Based on Dewitt's approach, we calculate the gravitational Casimir energy cost of the binary plane, which consists of statically gravitational effects and deformation-induced effects. It is found that the static effects include a term coming from the self-gravity of the orbital plane and the contribution of Newtonian gravitational potential of the binary system. While the deformation-induced effect also results from two parts, i.e. the instability of orbital binding energy, scaling as 1(R−r)2, and the dynamically Casimir energy cost of the orbital binding energy, decaying as 1(R−r)4. The dynamically gravitational Casimir phenomena and the corresponding energy cost modify the spiral-in orbital motion of the binary and thus the frequency of released gravitational waves (GWs). We consider the mechanical response of two NS components and qualitatively study the corrections to the orbital motion of the system and the GW frequencies. It is found that the dynamical Casimir effects exert a dissipative force on the binary plane, depending on the frequency of GWs. The resultant dissipation may enhance with the decaying separation and increasing GW frequencies, which subsequently accelerates the orbital decay of the binary. However, the dissipation rate just has an order of 10−70 eV/s. So the corrections to the dynamics of NS binaries are very marginal, by considering the wide separation, the cosmological coalescence time, and low-frequency GWs of the system.
We reported previously that acid-sensing ion channel 1a (ASIC1a) mediates acidic neuronal necroptosis via recruiting receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) to its C terminus (CT), independent ...of its ion-conducting function. Here we show that the N-terminus (NT) of ASIC1a interacts with its CT to form an auto-inhibition that prevents RIPK1 recruitment/activation under resting conditions. The interaction involves glutamate residues at distal NT and is disrupted by acidosis. Expression of mutant ASIC1a bearing truncation or glutamate-to-alanine substitutions at distal NT causes constitutive cell death. The NT-CT interaction is further disrupted by N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion ATPase (NSF), which associates with ASIC1a-NT under acidosis, facilitating RIPK1 interaction with ASIC1a-CT. Importantly, a membrane-penetrating synthetic peptide representing the distal 20 ASIC1a NT residues, NT
, reduced neuronal damage in both in vitro model of acidotoxicity and in vivo mouse model of ischemic stroke, demonstrating the therapeutic potential of targeting the auto-inhibition of ASIC1a for neuroprotection against acidotoxicity.
Metastasis-associated recurrence is the major cause of poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), however, the underlying mechanisms remain largely elusive. In this study, we report that ...expression of choroideremia-like (CHML) is increased in HCC, associated with poor survival, early recurrence and more satellite nodules in HCC patients. CHML promotes migration, invasion and metastasis of HCC cells, in a Rab14-dependent manner. Mechanism study reveals that CHML facilitates constant recycling of Rab14 by escorting Rab14 to the membrane. Furthermore, we identify several metastasis regulators as cargoes carried by Rab14-positive vesicles, including Mucin13 and CD44, which may contribute to metastasis-promoting effects of CHML. Altogether, our data establish CHML as a potential promoter of HCC metastasis, and the CHML-Rab14 axis may be a promising therapeutic target for HCC.
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