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This study aimed to examine the relationship between FGF19 and depressive symptoms, measured by BDI scores and investigate the moderating role of smoking.
Methods:
This study involved 156 Chinese adult males (78 smokers and 78 non-smokers) from September 2014 to January 2016. The severity of depressive symptoms was evaluated using the BDI scores. Spearman rank correlation analyses were used to investigate the relationship between CSF FGF19 levels and BDI scores. Additionally, moderation and simple slope analyses were applied to assess the moderating effect of smoking on the relationship between the two.
Results:
FGF19 levels were significantly associated with BDI scores across all participants (r = 0.26, p < 0.001). Smokers had higher CSF FGF19 levels and BDI scores compared to non-smokers (445.9 ± 272.7 pg/ml vs 229.6 ± 162.7 pg/ml, p < 0.001; 2.7 ± 3.0 vs 1.3 ± 2.4, p < 0.001). CSF FGF19 levels were positively associated with BDI scores in non-smokers (r = 0.27, p = 0.015), but no similar association was found among smokers (r = -0.11, p = 0.32). Linear regression revealed a positive correlation between FGF19 and BDI scores (β = 0.173, t = 2.161, 95% CI: 0.015- 0.331, p < 0.05), which was negatively impacted by smoking (β = -0.873, t = -4.644, 95% CI: -1.244 to -0.501, p < 0.001).
Conclusion:
These results highlight the potential role of FGF19 in individuals at risk for presence of or further development of depressive symptoms and underscore the importance of considering smoking status when examining this association.
Rhopalosiphum padi is an important grain pest, causing severe losses during crop production. As a systemic insecticide, flonicamid can control piercing-sucking pests efficiently. In our study, the lethal effects of flonicamid on the biological traits of R. padi were investigated via a life table approach. Flonicamid is highly efficiently toxic to R. padi, with an LC50 of 9.068 mg L−1. The adult longevity and fecundity of the R. padi F0 generation were markedly reduced under the LC25 and LC50 concentrations of flonicamid exposure. In addition, negative transgenerational effects on R. padi were observed under exposure to lethal concentrations of flonicamid, with noticeable decreases in the reproductive period, adult longevity, total longevity, and total fecundity of the F1 generation under the LC25 concentration of flonicamid. Furthermore, the third nymph stage (N3), preadult stage, duration of the adult pre-reproductive period, duration of the total pre-reproductive period, reproductive period, adult longevity, total longevity, and total fecundity of the F1 generation were significantly lower under treatment with the LC50 concentration of flonicamid. The life table parameters were subsequently analysed, revealing that the intrinsic rate of increase (rm) and the net reproductive rate (R0) were significantly lower but that the finite rate of increase (λ) and the mean generation time (T) were not significantly different under the LC25 and LC50 concentrations of flonicamid. These data are beneficial for grain aphid control and are critical for exploring the role of flonicamid in the integrated management of this key pest.
Purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus L.) is one of the world’s resilient upland weeds, primarily spreading through its tubers. Its emergence in rice (Oryza sativa L.) fields has been increasing, likely due to changing paddy-farming practices. This study aimed to investigate how C. rotundus, an upland weed, can withstand soil flooding and become a problematic weed in rice fields. The first comparative analysis focused on the survival and recovery characteristics of growing and mature tubers of C. rotundus exposed to soil-flooding conditions. Notably, mature tubers exhibited significant survival and recovery abilities in these environments. Based on this observation, further investigation was carried out to explore the morphological structure, nonstructural carbohydrates, and respiratory mechanisms of mature tubers in response to prolonged soil flooding. Over time, the mature tubers did not form aerenchyma but instead gradually accumulated lignified sclerenchymal fibers, with lignin content also increasing. After 90 d, the lignified sclerenchymal fibers and lignin contents were 4.0 and 1.1 times higher than those in the no soil-flooding treatment. Concurrently, soluble sugar content decreased while starch content increased, providing energy storage, and alcohol dehydrogenase activity rose to support anaerobic respiration via alcohol fermentation. These results indicated that mature tubers survived in soil-flooding conditions by adopting a low-oxygen quiescence strategy, which involves morphological adaptations through the development of lignified sclerenchymal fibers, increased starch reserves for energy storage, and enhanced anaerobic respiration. This mechanism likely underpins the flooding tolerance of mature C. rotundus tubers, allowing them to endure unfavorable conditions and subsequently germinate and grow once flooding subsides. This study provides a preliminary explanation of the mechanism by which mature tubers of C. rotundus from the upland areas confer flooding tolerance, shedding light on the reasons behind this weed’s increasing presence in rice fields.
In recent years, dangerous gas leakage events occur frequently. Rapid and accurate location of gas leakage sources by mobile robots is the key to avoid the expansion of disasters. In order to solve the problem of discontinuous gas concentration gradient and sparse gas environment in three-dimensional space, particle filter, and whale swarm optimization algorithm are integrated to locate gas source. Firstly, the Z-shape search and comb search are used to locate the plume, and then, the particle filter algorithm is combined with the whale optimization method to guide the particle movement, and the random inertial disturbance term is designed to improve the convergence speed and search accuracy of the algorithm. Experimental results in three-dimensional environment show that the proposed information-driven particle filter whale optimization hybrid algorithm effectively guides the robot in localizing gas source within a certain range, significantly enhancing both the efficiency and accuracy of localization compared to other algorithms.
The laboratory generation and diagnosis of uniform near-critical-density (NCD) plasmas play critical roles in various studies and applications, such as fusion science, high energy density physics, astrophysics as well as relativistic electron beam generation. Here we successfully generated the quasistatic NCD plasma sample by heating a low-density tri-cellulose acetate (TCA) foam with the high-power-laser-driven hohlraum radiation. The temperature of the hohlraum is determined to be 20 eV by analyzing the spectra obtained with the transmission grating spectrometer. The single-order diffraction grating was employed to eliminate the high-order disturbance. The temperature of the heated foam is determined to be T = 16.8 ± 1.1 eV by analyzing the high-resolution spectra obtained with a flat-field grating spectrometer. The electron density of the heated foam is about under the reasonable assumption of constant mass density.
Iodine is an essential nutrient that may change the occurrence of autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT). Apoptosis and DNA methylation participate in the pathogenesis and destructive mechanism of AIT. We detected the methylation and the expression of mRNA of intrinsic apoptosis-associated genes (YWHAG, ING4, BRSK2 and GJA1) to identify the potential interactions between the levels of methylation in these genes and different levels of iodine. 176 adult patients with AIT in Shandong Province, China, were included. The MethylTargetTM assay was used to verify the levels of methylation. We used PCR to detect the mRNA levels of the candidate genes. Interactions between methylation levels of the candidate genes and iodine levels were evaluated with multiplicative and addictive interaction models and GMDR. In the AIT group, YWHAG_1 and six CpG sites and BRSK2_1 and eight CpG sites were hypermethylated, whereas ING4_1 and one CpG site were hypomethylated. A negative correlation was found between methylation levels of YWHAG and mRNA expression. The combination of iodine fortification, YWHAG_1 hypermethylation and BRSK2_1 hypermethylation was significantly associated with elevated AIT risk. A four-locus model (YWHAG_1 × ING4_1 × BRSK2_1 × iodine level) was found to be the best model of the gene–environment interactions. We identified abnormal changes in the methylation status of YWHAG, ING4 and BRSK2 in patients with AIT in different iodine levels. Iodine fortification not only affected the methylation levels of YWHAG and BRSK2 but also interacted with the methylation levels of these genes and may ultimately increase the risk of AIT.
Using one-dimensional branching Brownian motion in a periodic environment, we give probabilistic proofs of the asymptotics and uniqueness of pulsating traveling waves of the Fisher–Kolmogorov–Petrovskii–Piskounov (F-KPP) equation in a periodic environment. This paper is a sequel to ‘Branching Brownian motion in a periodic environment and existence of pulsating travelling waves’ (Ren et al., 2022), in which we proved the existence of the pulsating traveling waves in the supercritical and critical cases, using the limits of the additive and derivative martingales of branching Brownian motion in a periodic environment.
The aim of this study was to explore the status of thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) and thyroglobulin antibody (TGAb) in three areas with differing water iodine concentrations; and to discuss the relationships between these two thyroid antibodies and thyroid diseases in the three areas. We investigated 2503 adults from three areas. Urinary iodine concentrations, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4), free triiodothyronine (FT3), TPOAb, TGAb and thyroid volume (TV) were measured, and thyroid ultrasonography was performed. The positivity rates of TGAb(+), TPOAb(+) and TGAb(+) and TPOAb(+) or TGAb(+) were significantly higher in iodine fortification (IF) areas than iodine adequate (IA) areas (all P < 0·05). In IF and iodine excess areas, the positivity rates of TPOAb(+), TGAb(+) and TPOAb(+) or TGAb(+) significantly increased with age (all P for trend < 0·05). The levels of TSH, TV and the prevalence of overt hypothyroidism, subclinical hypothyroidism and goitre were significantly elevated in the thyroid antibody-positive groups in the three areas, but the FT3 was diminished (all P < 0·010). Positivity for TPOAb and TGAb was associated with an increased risk of subclinical hypothyroidism in the three areas. In areas with different median water iodine, positivity for both TPOAb and TGAb was associated with elevated TSH values. Notably, with the increased levels of TPOAb, the frequency of abnormally elevated TSH increased dramatically in the three areas.
Both prosthetic and robotic research communities have tended to focus on hand/gripper development. However, the wrist unit could enable higher mobility of the end effector and thus more efficient and dexterous manipulation. The current state of the art in both prosthetic and robotic wrists is reviewed systematically, mainly concerning their kinematic structures and resultant capabilities. Further, by considering the biomechanical advantages of the human wrist, an evaluation including the mobility, stability, output capability, load capacity and flexibility of the current artificial wrists is conducted. With the pentagonal capability radar charts, the major limitations and challenges in the current development of artificial wrists are derived. This paper hence provides some useful insights for better robotic wrist design and development.
Upper Ordovician strata exposed from the Baiyanhuashan section is the most representative Late Ordovician unit in the northwestern margin of the North China Craton (NCC). In total, 1,215 conodont specimens were obtained from 24 samples through the Wulanhudong and Baiyanhuashan formations at the Baiyanhuashan section. Thirty-six species belonging to 17 genera, including Tasmanognathus coronatus new species, are present. Based on this material, three conodont biozones—the Belodina confluens Biozone, the Yaoxianognathus neimengguensis Biozone, and the Yaoxianognathus yaoxianensis Biozone—have been documented, suggesting that the Baiyanhuashan conodont fauna has a stratigraphic range spanning the early to middle Katian. The Baiyanhuashan conodont fauna includes species both endemic to North China and widespread in tropical zones, allowing a reassessment of the previous correlations of the Katian conodont zonal successions proposed for North China with those established for shallow-water carbonate platforms at low latitudes.
Three-dimensional (3-D) measurements of flame stretch are experimentally challenging. In this paper, two-dimensional (2-D) and 3-D measurements of flame stretch and turbulence–flame interactions were examined using direct numerical simulation (DNS) data of turbulent premixed flames, and models to estimate 3-D statistics of flame stretch-related quantities by correcting 2-D measurements were developed. A variety of DNS cases were simulated, including three freely propagating planar flames without a mean shear and a slot-jet flame with a mean shear. The main findings are summarized as follows. First, the mean shear mainly influences the flame orientations. However, it does not change the flame stretch and turbulence–flame interactions qualitatively. The distributions of out-of-plane angle of all cases are nearly isotropic. Second, models were proposed to approximate the 3-D statistics of flame stretch-related quantities using 2-D measurements, the performance of which was verified by comparing modelled and actual 3-D surface averages and probability density functions of tangential strain rate, curvature and displacement velocity. Third, 2-D measurements of flame stretch capture properly the trends of the 3-D results, with flame surface area being produced in low curvature regions and destroyed in highly curved regions. However, the magnitude of flame stretch was under-estimated in 2-D measurements. Finally, 2-D and 3-D turbulence–flame interactions were examined. The flame normal vector is aligned with the most compressive strain rate in both 2-D and 3-D measurements. Meanwhile, the flame normal vector is misaligned (weakly aligned) with the most extensive strain rate in 3-D (2-D) measurements, highlighting the difference in 2-D and 3-D results of turbulence–flame interactions.
OBJECTIVES/GOALS: To compare the opioid drug requirements amongst those individuals with high levels of catecholamines in blood and acute post-procedural pain, by ICD9/10 codes (experimental) to those with normal levels of catecholamines and acute post-procedural pain (AP-PP) only (controls) METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: In collaboration with both the Informatics and the Biostatistics Departments at CTSI and under the auspices of the IRB at the University of Rochester, we completed the collection of ~8,000 electronic health records(EHRs) of adults 18 years and older with surgical appointments at Strong Memorial Hospital (SMH), who met inclusion criteria, from January 2006 to September 2019 and received Fentanyl therapy for AP-PP management. Subjects were categorized in a two-arm-matched case-control fashion. A ratio of 1(Experimental):1(Control) was utilized. Analytic comparisons were completed using normal distribution statistical methods with p >0.1 for significance. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: After removal of duplicates and exclusion of EHRs, a total of 17 subjects met inclusion criteria for the experimental group. We matched controls (n = 17) with experimental subjects for age, gender and surgical procedure for accurately compare opioid requirements in the postoperative recovery. Mean age of subjects was 69(+/-10.1235) years old. Most of subjects were females (70%). Mean Fentanyl requirement was significantly different in the experimental group 466.17(625.621)mcg compared to 215.58(353.323)mcg in the controls (p value 0.07832) DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: It is suggested that healthy individuals with genetic variations in pain pathways including; the COMT and MAOA rendered individuals with higher levels of catecholamines in the body driving abnormal responses to pain sensitivity. We emulated this genetic variation for clinical purposes using ICD10/9 codes of those with conditions related to higher catecholamine levels in the body. Based on our preliminary results, we suggest that COMT and MAOA genetic variations could impact opioid drug use and the current opioid dependency and epidemics in the U.S. This study will address remarkable questions and identify strategies about this topic.
Recently, Echinacea purpurea and its extracts have gained much interest due to their improvement on meat quality, but little information is available on the application of the purified Echinacea purpurea polysaccharide (4-O-methyl-glucuronoarabinoxylan, 4OMG). Thus, this trial aimed at assessing the effects of dietary supplementation of 4OMG on growth performance, thigh meat quality and small intestine development of broilers. A total of 240 1-day-old female broiler chicks were randomly distributed to four groups with three replicates of 20 within each group. Each group received either 0, 15, 20 or 25 g 4OMG/kg DM of diet. During the entire experiment, broilers had ad libitum access to water and feed, and the feed intake was recorded daily. All broilers were weighed before and end of the experiment. For each group, three pens with a total of 20 broilers were randomly selected to slaughter after 30 days. Increasing dietary supplementation of 4OMG linearly increased final live weight and daily body weight gain (P = 0.013) of broilers, Gain-to-Feed ratio (P < 0.001), muscle pH (P = 0.024) and redness (P = 0.001), but decreased drip loss (P = 0.033), shear force value (P = 0.004) and hardness (P = 0.022) of the thigh meat. Broilers fed diet with higher 4OMG had greater weight index, villus height and ratio of villus height to crypt depth in both duodenum and jejunum. These results indicated that increasing dietary supplementation of 4OMG was beneficial for growth performance, meat quality and development of the small intestine of broilers.
A review is given of the future device processing needs for Ga2O3 power electronics. The two main devices employed in power converters and wireless charging systems will be vertical rectifiers and metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). The rectifiers involve thick epitaxial layers on conducting substrates and require stable Schottky contacts, edge termination methods to reduce electric field crowding, dry etch patterning in the case of trench structures, and low resistance Ohmic contacts in which ion implantation or low bandgap interfacial oxides are used to minimize the specific contact resistance. The MOSFETs also require spatially localized doping enhancement for low source/drain contact resistance, stable gate insulators with acceptable band offsets relative to the Ga2O3 to ensure adequate carrier confinement, and enhancement mode capability. Attempts are being made to mitigate the absence of p-type doping capability for Ga2O3 by developing p-type oxide heterojunctions with n-type Ga2O3. Success in this area would lead to minority carrier devices with better on-state performance and a much-improved range of functionality, such as p-i-n diodes, Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors, and thyristors.
In this paper, we review the status of the multifunctional experimental platform at the National Laboratory of High Power Laser and Physics (NLHPLP). The platform, including the SG-II laser facility, SG-II 9th beam, SG-II upgrade (SG-II UP) facility, and SG-II 5 PW facility, is operational and available for interested scientists studying inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and a broad range of high-energy-density physics. These facilities can provide important experimental capabilities by combining different pulse widths of nanosecond, picosecond, and femtosecond scales. In addition, the SG-II UP facility, consisting of a single petawatt system and an eight-beam nanosecond system, is introduced including several laser technologies that have been developed to ensure the performance of the facility. Recent developments of the SG-II 5 PW facility are also presented.
A miniaturized Bagley Polygon power divider based on composite right/left-handed transmission line is presented. The composite right/left-handed transmission line and conventional microstrip transmission line are utilized to realize the 0° phase shift transmission line, which is used to replace the 180° transmission line of the conventional Bagley Polygon power divider. As a result, miniaturization is realized, without deteriorating the isolation between the output ports. The design equations are presented. This power divider shows advantages compared with other miniaturized ones. For verification, a miniaturized Bagley Polygon power divider is designed and fabricated. The 58.2% length reduction of the counterpart is realized. The measurement and simulation results show good agreement.
Babesiosis is an emerging tick-transmitted zoonosis prevalent in large parts of the world. This study was designed to determine the rates of Babesia microti infection among small rodents in Yunnan province, where human cases of babesiosis have been reported. Currently, distribution of Babesia in its endemic regions is largely unknown. In this study, we cataloged 1672 small wild rodents, comprising 4 orders, from nine areas in western Yunnan province between 2009 and 2011. Babesia microti DNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction in 4·3% (72/1672) of the rodents analyzed. The most frequently infected rodent species included Apodemus chevrieri and Niviventer fulvescens. Rodents from forests and shrublands had significantly higher Babesia infection rates. Genetic comparisons revealed that Babesia was most similar to the Kobe- and Otsu-type strains identified in Japan. A variety of rodent species might be involved in the enzootic maintenance and transmission of B. microti, supporting the need for further serological investigations in humans.
In this paper, a tri-band bandpass filter (BPF) using asymmetric stub-loaded stepped-impedance resonator (SL-SIR) is presented. The asymmetric characteristic of SL-SIR broadens degrees of freedom for three controllable modes design. Also, the coupling coefficients (Mij) and the external quality factors (Qei) at each passband of the filter can be independently adjusted by the proposed mixed-type feedline structure. Besides, multi-transmission zeros are produced to improve the isolation and selectivity of the passbands. Finally, a tri-band BPF is operated at 1.9 GHz (time division long term evolution – TD-LTE band), 3.2 GHz (worldwide interoperability for microwave access – WiMAX band), and 5.8 GHz (wireless local area networks – WLAN band) and their insertion loss are 1.03, 0.94, and 1.27 dB, respectively. The measured results of the fabricated tri-band BPF exhibit good agreement with simulated results.
2D nanomaterials, when assembled into an ordered macrostructure, will present many great opportunities, including for Li-ion batteries (LIBs). We report densely-packed vertically-aligned VO2(B) nanobelts (NBs)-based forest structure synthesized on edge-oriented graphene (EOG) network. Using a EOG/Ni foam as a 3D scaffold, aligned VO2(B) NBs can be further synthesized into a folded 3D forest structure to construct a freestanding electrode for LIBs. Electrochemical studies found that such a freestanding VO2(B)/EOG electrode, which combines the unique merits of 2D VO2(B) NBs and 2D graphene sheets, has excellent charge-discharge rate performance. A discharge capacity of 178 mAh g-1 at a rate of 59 C and 100 mAh g-1 at 300 C was measured. A good charge-discharge cycling stability under a high current density was also demonstrated. The results indicate VO2(B)/EOG forest based freestanding electrode is very promising for developing high-rate LIBs.