Corporal punishment is believed to precede various forms of violent behavior, yet prior research has yielded inconsistent findings, partly due to variations in violent types and other factors. This ...meta-analysis systematically reviewed 35 studies including 144 effect sizes (comprising a total sample size of 159,213) investigating the association between corporal punishment and a spectrum of violent behaviors called Violent Behavior Spectrum (VBS). Additionally, meta-regressions were conducted to explore the moderating impact of punishment severity, violence type and cultural context. Our findings indicated a significant positive relationship between corporal punishment and VBS (
= 0.238, 95%, CI 0.176, 0.300). Notably, punishment severity was found to influence the strength of this association. Namely, The more severe the corporal punishment, the more likely it is to lead to VBS. These results enhance our understanding of the intricate connection between corporal punishment and various forms of violence, providing valuable insights for both parenting practices and policy development.
Objective: The Chinese medicine Jianpi-Huayu decoction (健脾化瘀方, JPHY) can alleviate cancer-related fatigue in patients with liver cancer. However, its mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we used ...BALB/c mice with liver cancer model to investigate whether JPHY alleviates cancer-related fatigue by regulating Th1/Th2 immune balance; and the possible association with the IL-27/STAT1 signaling pathway. Methods: We established a mouse model of liver cancer fatigue. Mice were gavaged with physiological saline, low, medium, or high concentrations of JPHY respectively; and intraperitoneal injection of fludarabine (STAT1 pathway inhibitor) with JPHY for 21 days. We recorded the general condition of the mice, and assessed fatigue using scoring criteria and Exhausted Swimming Test. We calculated the spleen and thymus indices, performed H&E staining and immunohistochemical analysis on liver tumor tissues to observe the tumor proliferation marker ki67. We quantified the secretion levels of IFN-γ and IL-2 produced by Th1 cells in serum and splenic lymphocytes, as well as the secretion of IL-4, IL-10 by Th2 cells, and IL-27 in the signaling pathway through ELISA analysis. We evaluated the expression levels of p-STAT1 and STAT1 in spleen tissues using Western blot analysis. Results: JPHY exhibits a therapeutic effect on hepatocellular carcinoma-induced splenomegaly in murine models by upregulating the pro-inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ and IL-2 and downregulating the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 and IL-10. Moreover, JPHY suppresses ki67 expression, reduces tumor-related inflammation infiltration, and ameliorates cancer-associated fatigue. Additionally, the expression of phosphorylated protein p-STAT1 is down-regulated. Conclusion: JPHY may improve the Th1/Th2 immune balance through its anti-inflammatory effects and promotion of IL-27-induced STAT1 phosphorylation, thereby alleviating fatigue in mice with liver cancer.
Objective
To evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture for the treatment of diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) based on the existing randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
Methods
Nine databases from ...their inception to December 6th, 2022, were comprehensively searched to retrieve RCTs related to the clinical efficacy of acupuncture for the treatment of DOR. The outcomes of interest were sex hormones level and antral follicle count (AFC). Risk of Bias (RoB) was adopted to assess the quality of the included trials.
Results
A total of 13 RCTs involving 787 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The review of available evidence revealed acupuncture produced a significant efficacy in decreasing follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels (SMD = -1.07, 95%CI -1.79, -0.36,
p
= 0.003), FSH/LH ratio (MD = -0.31, 95%CI -0.54, -0.09,
p
= 0.006) and increasing anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels (SMD = 0.25, 95%CI -0.00, 0.49,
p
= 0.05), along with AFC (MD = 1.87, 95%CI 0.96, 2.79,
p
< 0.0001) compared to controls. Compared with electro-acupuncture treatment, manual acupuncture was superior in reducing FSH levels, FSH/LH ratio, and increasing AMH levels and AFC (
p
< 0.05). A notable association was also seen when acupuncture was combined with traditional Chinese medicine therapy for improving FSH levels, FSH/LH ratio, and AFC (
p
< 0.05). Besides, a high dose of acupuncture (≥10 acupoints) was more conducive to ameliorating FSH levels, FSH/LH ratio, and AFC (
p
< 0.05) than a low dose of acupuncture (<10 acupoints). Substantial heterogeneity existed among studies.
Conclusion
Acupuncture may have significant clinical potential for patients with DOR in terms of improving sex hormones level and increasing AFC, although the evidence is drawn with high heterogeneity. This finding suggests that more rigorous trials conducted in diverse regions worldwide are necessary to identify the efficacy of acupuncture for patients diagnosed with DOR.
Systematic review registration
https://www.crd.york.ac.uk
, identifier CRD42023402336.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) has expanded the possibilities of research in various scientific fields. Virtual reality simulations driven by artificial ...intelligence has revolutionary significance in the fields of education, healthcare, and entertainment. However, there is a lack of comprehensive investigation to systematically summarize the basic characteristics and development trajectory of metaverse visual content generated by artificial intelligence. This survey focused on the construction of intelligent metaverse scene content, aiming to bridge this gap by studying the application of artificial intelligence in content generation. It explores scene content generation, simulation biology, personalized content, and intelligent agents. By analyzing the current situation in this field and identifying common features, this survey provides a detailed description of the methods for constructing intelligent scenes in the metaverse. The main contribution of this study is a comprehensive analysis of the current situation of intelligent visual content production in the metaverse, highlighting emerging trends. It aims to motivate researchers to use artificial intelligence to enhance VR experience and promote the creation of immersive metaverse simulation scenarios. The discussion on methods for constructing intelligent scene content in the metaverse suggests that, in the era of intelligence, it has the potential to become the dominant approach for content creation in metaverse scenes.
Abstract
Network segregation—a critical problem in real-life networks—can reveal the emergence of conflicts or signal an impending collapse of the whole system. However, the strong heterogeneity of ...such networks and the various definitions for key nodes continue to pose challenges that limit our ability to foresee segregation and to determine the main drivers behind it. In this paper, we show that a multi-agent leader–follower consensus system can be utilized to define a new index, named leadership, to identify key leaders in real-life networks. And then, this paper explores the emergence of network segregation that is driven by these leaders based on the removal or the rewiring of the relations between different nodes in agreement with their contribution distance. We finally show that the observed leaders-driven segregation dynamics reveals the dynamics of heterogeneous attributes that critically influence network structure and its segregation. Thus, this paper provides a theoretical method to study complex social interactions and their roles in network segregation, which ultimately leads to a closed-form explanation for the emergence of imbalanced network structure from an evolutionary perspective.
Abstract
Faces have universal structures yet contain distinct features among individuals. Recognizing individuals based on their faces has always been a popular topic in pattern recognition, and ...computer vision and many traditional approaches have yielded satisfying results. In recent years, rapid growth in deep learning has encouraged researchers to use deep learning methods to solve authentication problems. Convolutional neural networks are one of the most popular deep neural networks with multiple layers and the ability to reduce parameters by using kernels to capture features from input. It has outstanding performance in pattern recognition due to its ability to extract features and take images as inputs. In machine learning, data augmentation is a technique to seemingly enlarge a dataset to avoid underfitting or overfitting problems caused by insufficient data. This paper uses convolutional neural networks to solve face recognition problems on a small dataset. It compares performance with traditional face recognition methods such as Principal Component Analysis and examines the impact on performance using data augmentation. Overall, data augmentation boosts the accuracy of the network but also results in an unsteady learning curve. The convolutional neural network performs well on pattern recognition and obtains an accuracy of 94% in an augmented dataset with only two convolutional layers.
Accurate quantification of net primary productivity (NPP) is key to estimating vegetation productivity and studying the global carbon cycle. However, C3 and C4 plants vary in their living ...environments and potential productivity due to their different photosynthetic pathways. This study thus explored the potential of the near-infrared radiance of vegetation (NIRv,Rad) to track hourly and daily changes in C3 and C4 plants and investigate whether their photosynthetic pathways affect the relationship between NPP and NIRv,Rad. Statistics including long-term spectral data, the growth environment, and physiological indicators were collected using an automatic spectral monitoring system. The vegetation index NIRv,Rad was extracted from the collected spectral data and NPP was calculated using the collected net photosynthetic rate and leaf area index. The results showed that NIRv,Rad can effectively respond to NPP changes in C3 and C4 plants on hourly and daily scales. The NPP–NIRv,Rad relationship on the hourly scale was superior, with R2 values for winter wheat and summer maize of 0.81 and 0.70, respectively. Furthermore, when the accumulation of NPP was equal, the NIRv,Rad of summer maize showed larger changes, indicating that it was more sensitive to NPP change for this species than for winter wheat. Overall, the study demonstrated that NIRv,Rad can serve as an effective proxy indicator of NPP. In addition, this study provides a theoretical basis and scientific guidance for the construction of new simple models and realizing efficient agriculture, as well as a new method for rapid and accurate quantification of the NPP of C3 and C4 plants at geospatial scales in future research.
Aiming at the problem of unsteady cavitation during a projectile’s vertical water-exit process, scaled model experiments were carried out based on the self-designed underwater launch platform and ...high-speed cameras, which focus on changes in cavitation shape and projectile posture. In this paper, the general process of the cavitation evolution and projectile’s movement is described; the relationship between the re-entry jet, local cavitation number and cavitation stability is discussed. Meanwhile, the effect of head forms and launch speeds on the cavitation evolution and movement characteristics is analyzed, including 60° cone, 90° cone and hemispherical head with velocity of 16.8 m/s, 18.5 m/s and 20.0 m/s, whose launch cavitation number is 0.714, 0.589 and 0.504. The results show that the attached cavities fall off from the bottom up under the influence of the end-re-entry jet and the shedding frequency declines when the launch cavitation number decreases. The cavitation growth of 60° cone is easily disturbed by the air mass near the launcher, the cavitation development of 90° cone is characterized by small-scale and high-frequency growth and shedding, while the hemispherical head is not prone to cavitation. Moreover, increasing the speed can improve the stability of cavitation development and the projectile’s movement.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and degenerative disorder accompanied by cognitive decline, which could be promoted by mitochondrial dysfunction induced by mitochondrial Ca
(mCa
) ...homeostasis Mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU), a key channel of mCa
uptake, may be a target for AD treatment. In the present study, we reveal for the first time that
knockdown in hippocampal neurons improves the memory performance of APP/PS1/tau mice through radial arm maze task. Western blot analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Golgi staining, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and ELISA results demonstrate that
knockdown in hippocampal neurons upregulates the levels of postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95) and synaptophysin (SYP), and increases the numbers of synapses and dendritic spines. Meanwhile,
knockdown in hippocampal neurons decreases the neuroinflammatory response induced by astrogliosis and high levels of IL-1β and TNF-α, and improves the PINK1-Parkin mitophagy signaling pathway and increases the level of Beclin-1 but decreases the level of P62. In addition,
knockdown in hippocampal neurons recovers the average volume and number of mitochondria. These data confirm that
knockdown in hippocampal neurons improves the memory performance of APP/PS1/tau mice through ameliorating the synapse structure and function, relieving the inflammation response and recovering mitophagy, indicating that MCU inhibition has the potential to be developed as a novel therapy for AD.
Display omitted
•2′-FL alleviated obesity in HFD mice.•2′-FL increased energy expenditure and adaptive thermogenesis in HFD mice.•2′-FL induced the browning of iWAT and increased the activity of ...BAT.•2′-FL improved the diversity, structure and composition of gut microbiota.
2′-fucosyllactose (2′-FL) is one of the most prevalent milk oligosaccharides. In this study, the anti-obesity effect of 2′-FL was explored in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. Results showed that 2′-FL alleviated body weight gain, improved serum lipid profiles and increased energy expenditure. Under cold exposure, 2′-FL group showed higher body and rectal temperature, improving adaptive thermogenesis. 2′-FL alleviated lipid accumulation, increased mitochondrial DNA content, as well as upregulated the protein expression of thermogenic markers including UCP1, PRDM16, PGC-1α and the phosphorylation of AMPK in both white and brown adipose tissue. 2′-FL also increased the diversity of gut microbiota in HFD mice. The Bacteroides/Firmicutes ratio, and the Bifidobacterium abundance were increased, while Lachnospiraceae abundance was decreased after 2′-FL treatment. Moreover, 2′-FL to HFD mice altered the bile acid profiles at levels comparable to normal diet group. These results indicates that 2′-FL promotes thermogenesis and modulates gut microbiota to alleviate obesity.
PDF
