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Clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR) is often managed with antipsychotic medications, but their effects on neurocognitive performance and clinical outcomes remain insufficiently explored. This study investigates the association between aripiprazole and olanzapine use and cognitive and clinical outcomes in CHR individuals, compared to those receiving no antipsychotic treatment.
Methods
A retrospective analysis was conducted on 127 participants from the Shanghai At Risk for Psychosis (SHARP) cohort, categorized into three groups: aripiprazole, olanzapine, and no antipsychotic treatment. Neurocognitive performance was evaluated using the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB), while clinical symptoms were assessed through the Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS) at baseline, 8 weeks, and one year.
Results
The non-medicated group demonstrated greater improvements in cognitive performance, clinical symptoms, and functional outcomes compared to the medicated groups. Among the antipsychotic groups, aripiprazole was associated with better visual learning outcomes than olanzapine. Improvements in neurocognition correlated significantly with clinical symptom relief and overall functional gains at follow-up assessments.
Conclusions
These findings suggest potential associations between antipsychotic use and cognitive outcomes in CHR populations while recognizing that observed differences may reflect baseline illness severity rather than medication effects alone. Aripiprazole may offer specific advantages over olanzapine, underscoring the importance of individualized risk-benefit evaluations in treatment planning. Randomized controlled trials are needed to establish causality.
Mild cognitive deficits (MCD) emerge before the first episode of psychosis (FEP) and persist in the clinical high-risk (CHR) stage. This study aims to refine risk prediction by developing MCD models optimized for specific early psychosis stages and target populations.
Methods
A comprehensive neuropsychological battery assessed 1059 individuals with FEP, 794 CHR, and 774 matched healthy controls (HCs). CHR subjects, followed up for 2 years, were categorized into converters (CHR-C) and non-converters (CHR-NC). The MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery standardized neurocognitive tests were employed.
Results
Both the CHR and FEP groups exhibited significantly poorer performance compared to the HC group across all neurocognitive tests (all p < 0.001). The CHR-C group demonstrated poorer performance compared to the CHR-NC group on three sub-tests: visuospatial memory (p < 0.001), mazes (p = 0.005), and symbol coding (p = 0.023) tests. Upon adjusting for sex and age, the performance of the MCD model was excellent in differentiating FEP from HC, as evidenced by an Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC) of 0.895 (p < 0.001). However, when applied in the CHR group for predicting CHR-C (AUC = 0.581, p = 0.008), the performance was not satisfactory. To optimize the efficiency of psychotic risk assessment, three distinct MCD models were developed to distinguish FEP from HC, predict CHR-C from CHR-NC, and identify CHR from HC, achieving accuracies of 89.3%, 65.6%, and 80.2%, respectively.
Conclusions
The MCD exhibits variations in domains, patterns, and weights across different stages of early psychosis and diverse target populations. Emphasizing precise risk assessment, our findings highlight the importance of tailored MCD models for different stages and risk levels.
The harm caused by mine tailings has become increasingly problematic in recent years, so efforts are needed to dispose of or reutilize them in environmentally friendly ways. The objective of the present study was to find out if the hydration properties of muscovite contained in mine tailings are suitable for it to be used as a pozzolan in cement, after undergoing mechanical activation. Aqueous suspensions of mechanically activated muscovite were blended with 10, 20, or 30 wt.% calcium oxide and then allowed to harden. The hardened paste samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) techniques. The results revealed that the mechanically activated muscovite exhibited pozzolanic reaction activity in the alkaline environment provided by calcium oxide, and the activated muscovite possessed a capacity to react with calcium hydroxide to form hydration products. The calcium oxide content affected significantly the quantities and kinds of hydration products, non-evaporable water content, and the compressive strength development of the paste samples. The hydration products of the 10% calcium oxide-activated, mechanically activated muscovite pastes were Al-containing hydrated calcium silicate (C-A-S-H) gel, stratlingite, and, upon addition of 20% and 30% calcium oxide, Ca-Al hydrotalcite-like (Ht) phases. The present study was helpful in evaluating the hydration properties of the mechanically activated muscovite and also provided a research basis for evaluating the hydration properties of mine tailings containing muscovite after mechanical activation. The results provided a theoretical basis for muscovite-containing mine tailings to be used as a cement additive, and was conducive to the large-scale utilization of mine tailings.
Throughout the course of a flight mission, a range of aerodynamic conditions, including design-point conditions and off-design conditions, are encountered. As the bypass ratio increases and the fan-pressure ratio decreases to reduce the engine’s specific fuel consumption, the engine diameters increase, which results in an increase in the nacelle weight and overall drag. To reduce its weight and drag, a shorter nacelle with a length-to-diameter ratio $L/D = 0.35$ is investigated. In this study, an adaptive cokriging-based multi-objective optimisation method is applied to the design of a short aero-engine nacelle. Two nacelle performance metrics were employed as the objective functions for the optimisation routine. The cruise drag coefficient is evaluated under cruise conditions, whereas the intake pressure recovery is evaluated under takeoff conditions. The cokriging metamodel are refined using an effective infilling strategy, where high-fidelity samples are infilled via the modified Pareto fitness, and low-fidelity samples are infilled via the Pareto front. By combining parameterised geometry generation, automated mesh generation, numerical simulations, surrogate model construction, Pareto front exploration based on the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II and sample infilling, an integrated multi-objective optimisation framework for short aero-engine nacelles is developed. Two-objective and three-objective test functions are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. After the optimisation process, a set of non-dominated nacelle designs is obtained with better aerodynamic performance than the original design, demonstrating the effectiveness of the optimisation framework. Compared with the kriging-based optimisation framework, the cokriging-based optimisation framework outperforms the single-fidelity method with a higher hypervolume value at the same number of iteration loops.
The relationships between childhood weight self-misperception and obesity-related factors particularly health markers have not been extensively discussed. This study aims to examine the associations between weight self-misperception and obesity-related knowledge, attitudes, lifestyles and cardio-metabolic markers among Chinese paediatric population.
Design:
Cross-sectional study.
Setting:
Data sourced from a national survey in Chinese seven provinces in 2013.
Participants:
Children and adolescents aged 5–19 years.
Results:
Of the total 14 079 participants, there were 14·5 % and 2·2 % participants over-estimated and under-perceived their weight, respectively. Multi-variable logistic regression was applied to calculate OR and 95 % CI (95 % Cl) of obesity-related behaviours and cardio-metabolic markers by actual and perceived weight status. Individuals who perceived themselves as overweight/obese were more likely to have prolonged screen time, insufficient dairy intake and over sugar-sweetened beverages consumption (all P < 0·05), regardless of their weight. Furthermore, actual overweight/obese individuals had higher odds of abnormal cardio-metabolic markers, but a smaller magnitude of association was found among weight under-estimators. Among non-overweight/obese individuals, weight over-estimation was positively associated with abdominal obesity (OR: 10·49, 95 % CI: 7·45, 14·76), elevated blood pressure (OR: 1·30, 95 % CI: 1·12, 1·51) and dyslipidemia (OR: 1·43, 95 % CI: 1·29, 1·58).
Conclusions:
Weight over-perception was more prevalent than under-estimation, particularly in girls. Weight over-estimators tended to master better knowledge but behave more unhealthily; both weight over-perception and actual overweight/obesity status were associated with poorer cardio-metabolic markers. Future obesity intervention programmes should additionally pay attention to the population with inaccurate estimation of weight who were easily overlooked.
A method is presented for configuration selection to obtain the best tip-over stability of a modular reconfigurable mobile manipulator (MRMM) under various application situations. The said MRMM consists of a modular reconfigurable robot (MRR) mounted on a mobile platform. The MRR in different configurations creates different wrenches onto the mobile platform, leading to different tip-over moments of the MRMM, even though the joint speeds or tip speeds remain the same. The underlying problem pertains to selecting one configuration of MRR for reconfiguration that would obtain the best tip-over stability under a given application. First, all the permissible configurations are identified through an enumeration method. Then, the feasible configurations are determined based on application-oriented workspace classifications. At last, two workspace indices, vertical reach and horizontal reach, are used to select an optimal configuration. The tip-over stability analysis and evaluation of MRMM are carried out for verification for three cases including vertical, horizontal, and general 3D space applications. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The aim of the present study is to determine whether plasma bile acids (BAs) could be used as an auxiliary diagnostic biomarker to distinguish patients with schizophrenia from healthy controls. Seventeen different BAs were quantitatively measured in plasma of 12 healthy participants and 12 patients with schizophrenia. Then, the data were subjected to correlation and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The concentrations of cholic acid (CA), taurochenodeoxycholic acid (TCDCA) and taurodeoxycholic acid (TDCA) were significantly decreased in plasma of the schizophrenia patients. Correlation analysis showed the concentrations of CA, TCDCA and TDCA were negatively correlated with schizophrenia. In addition, LDA demonstrated that combination of CA, TCDCA and TDCA with a classification formula could predict correctly classified cases and the accuracy of prediction was up to 95.83%. Combination of the three BAs may be useful to diagnose schizophrenia in plasma samples.
To evaluate the effects of dietary Ca intake and Ca supplementation during pregnancy on low birth weight (LBW) and small for gestational age (SGA) infants.
Design:
A birth cohort study was conducted in 2010–2012 at the Gansu Provincial Maternity and Child Care Hospital in Lanzhou, China.
Setting:
A birth cohort study.
Participants:
Totally, 9595 pregnant women who came to the hospital for delivery at 20 weeks of gestation or more, and who were 18 years of age or older.
Results:
Compared with non-users, Ca supplement users had a reduced risk of LBW infants (OR = 0·77, 95 % CI: 0·63, 0·95) and a reduced risk of nulliparous women giving birth to LBW infants (OR = 0·75, 95 % CI: 0·58, 0·98) (P < 0·05). More specifically, both the use of Ca supplement before conception and during pregnancy (OR = 0·44, 95 % CI: 0·19, 0·99) and during pregnancy only (OR = 0·80, 95 % CI: 0·65, 0·99) had the main effect of reducing risk of nulliparous women giving birth to LBW infants (P < 0·05). There was no association between Ca supplementation and SGA (OR = 0·87, 95 % CI: 0·75, 1·01) (P > 0·05). However, higher dietary Ca intake during pregnancy decreases the risk of both LBW (quartile 2: OR = 0·72, 95 % CI: 0·55, 0·94; quartile 3: OR = 0·68, 95 % CI: 0·50, 0·62) and SGA infants (quartile 2: OR = 0·77, 95 % CI: 0·63, 0·95; quartile 3: OR = 0·71, 95 % CI: 0·57, 0·88, quartile 4: OR = 0·71, 95 % CI: 0·57, 0·88) (P < 0·05).
Conclusions:
Ca supplementation and adequate dietary intake of Ca during pregnancy are associated with a decreased risk of LBW infants born to nulliparous women.
The aim of the study was to investigate the continuous changing pattern of H4K12 acetylation, and the expression levels of histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetyltransferases (HDACs) in mouse oocytes during meiosis and after parthenogenetic activation (PA). The immunofluorescence results showed hyperacetylation of lysine-12 on histone H4 (H4K12) in the germinal vesicle (GV) oocytes that then decreased during germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD), and disappeared in metaphase II (MII). However, it reappeared in the early 1-cell embryos derived after 4 h of PA. The expression levels of some selected HATs and HDACs also validated the changing pattern of H4K12 acetylation during meiosis and PA. In conclusion, H4K12 is deacetylated in GVBD and MII, and re-hyperacetylated after PA.
Tempering cooling rate plays a significant role in the impact toughness of 2CrMoV weld metal. Three different tempering cooling rate experiments were carried out; it is found that the impact toughness of weld metal improved from 44.61 to 117.49 J as the cooling rate increased from 5 to 40 °C/h. Microstructure characterization revealed that the large blocky M–A constituents and cluster precipitation were considered to act as stress concentration sources and cleavage fracture initiators at a cooling rate of 5 °C/h. Under the cooling rate of 20 °C/h, the decrease of blocky M–A constituents as well as homogeneous distribution of precipitation induced the transition from cleavage to interfacial decohesion. The chance of crack propagation in intragranular ferrite matrix was increased, which needed to absorb more energy and improve impact toughness. When the tempering cooling rate reached at 40 °C/h, the cracks mainly propagated in the ferrite matrix; meanwhile, fine and homogeneous distribution of precipitation greatly inhibited crack propagation and led to higher impact toughness.
Astronomy education and public outreach (EPO) is one of the important part of the future development of astronomy. During the past few years, as the rapid evolution of Internet and the continuous change of policy, the breeding environment of science EPO keep improving and the number of related projects show a booming trend. EPO is no longer just a matter of to teachers and science educators but also attracted the attention of professional astronomers. Among all activates of astronomy EPO, the data driven astronomy education and public outreach (abbreviated as DAEPO) is special and important. It benefits from the development of Big Data and Internet technology and is full of flexibility and diversity. We will present the history, definition, best practices and prospective development of DAEPO for better understanding this active field.
Crystal structure and electronic structure of YMnO3 were investigated by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy related techniques. According to the density of states (DOS), the individual interband transitions to energy loss peaks in the low energy loss spectrum were assigned. The hybridization of O 2p with Mn 3d and Y 4d analyzed by the partial DOS was critical to the ferroelectric nature of YMnO3. From the simulation of the energy loss near-edge structure, the fine structure of O K-edge was in good agreement with the experimental spectrum. The valence state of Mn (+3) in YMnO3 was determined by a comparison between experiment and calculations.
The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of curcumin on insulin resistance (IR) and hepatic lipid accumulation in intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR). Rats with a normal birth weight (NBW) or IUGR were fed basic diets (NBW and IUGR groups) or basic diets supplemented with curcumin (NBW-C and IUGR-C groups) from 6 to 12 weeks. Rats in the IUGR group showed higher levels of glucose and homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) (P < 0·05) than in the NBW group. The livers of IUGR rats exhibited higher (P < 0·05) concentration of TAG and lower (P < 0·05) activities of lipolysis enzymes compared with the normal rats. In response to dietary curcumin supplementation, concentrations of serum insulin, glucose and HOMA-IR, pyruvate, TAG, total cholesterol and NEFA in the liver were decreased (P < 0·05). The concentrations of glycogen and activities of lipolysis enzymes in the liver were increased (P < 0·05) in the IUGR-C group compared with the IUGR group. These results were associated with lower (P < 0·05) phosphorylated insulin receptor substrate 1, protein kinase B or Akt, glycogen synthase kinase 3β and expressions of sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 and fatty acid synthase (FASN); decreased expressions for Cd36, sterol regulatory element binding protein 1c (Srebf1) and Fasn; increased (P < 0·05) expression of PPARα; and expressions for Ppara and hormone-sensitive lipase in the liver of IUGR-C rats than the IUGR rats. Maternal malnutrition caused IR and lipid accumulation in the liver. Curcumin supplementation prevented IR by regulating insulin signalling pathways and attenuated hepatic lipid accumulation.
Underground Nuclear Astrophysics in China (JUNA) will take the advantage of the ultra-low background in Jinping underground lab. High current accelerator with an ECR source and detectors were commissioned. JUNA plans to study directly a number of nuclear reactions important to hydrostatic stellar evolution at their relevant stellar energies. At the first period, JUNA aims at the direct measurements of 25Mg(p,γ)26 Al, 19F(p,α) 16 O, 13C(α, n) 16O and 12C(α,γ) 16O near the Gamow window. The current progress of JUNA will be given.
Rats with a normal birth weight (NBW) or intra-uterine growth retardation (IUGR) were fed basic diets (NBW and IUGR groups) or basic diets supplemented with curcumin (NC and IC groups) from 6 to 12 weeks. The body weight of IUGR rats was lower (P<0·05) than that of the controls. Rats with IUGR showed higher (P<0·05) concentrations of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6; higher (P<0·05) activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in their serum; and increased (P<0·05) concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA), protein carbonyl (PC) and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHDG) in the liver compared with the NBW rats. The livers of IUGR rats exhibited a lower (P<0·05) superoxide dismutase activity and decreased (P<0·05) metabolic efficiency of the hepatic glutathione redox cycle compared with those of the NBW rats. In response to dietary curcumin supplementation, concentrations of inflammatory cytokines and activities of AST and ALT in the serum and MDA, PC and 8-OHDG in the liver were lower (P<0·05), and the hepatic glutathione redox cycle in the liver was improved (P<0·05) in the IC group than in the IUGR group. These results were associated with lower (P<0·05) phosphorylated levels of the NF-κB pathway and Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) and higher (P<0·05) mRNA expression of genes involved in the nuclear factor, erythroid 2-like 2 (Nfe2l2)/antioxidant response element (ARE) pathway in the liver of the IC rats than that of the IUGR rats. Maternal undernutrition decreased birth weight and led to inflammation, oxidative damage and injury in rats. Curcumin appeared to be beneficial in preventing IUGR-induced inflammation, oxidative damage and injury by activating the expression of the NF-κB, JAK/STAT and Nfe2l2/ARE pathways in the liver.
This paper is concerned with the construction of high order mass-lumping finite elements on simplexes and a program for computing mass-lumping finite elements on triangles and tetrahedra. The polynomial spaces for mass-lumping finite elements, as proposed in the literature, are presented and discussed. In particular, the unisolvence problem of symmetric point-sets for the polynomial spaces used in mass-lumping elements is addressed, and an interesting property of the unisolvent symmetric point-sets is observed and discussed. Though its theoretical proof is still lacking, this property seems to be true in general, and it can greatly reduce the number of cases to consider in the computations of mass-lumping elements. A program for computing mass-lumping finite elements on triangles and tetrahedra, derived from the code for computing numerical quadrature rules presented in [7], is introduced. New mass-lumping finite elements on triangles found using this program with higher orders, namely 7, 8 and 9, than those available in the literature are reported.
In this paper, a new discontinuous Galerkin method is developed for the parabolic equation with jump coefficients satisfying the continuous flow condition. Theoretical analysis shows that this method is L2 stable. When the finite element space consists of interpolative polynomials of degrees k, the convergent rate of the semi-discrete discontinuous Galerkin scheme has an order of . Numerical examples for both 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional problems demonstrate the validity of the new method.
In Western countries, a history of major depression (MD) is associated with reports of received parenting that is low in warmth and caring and high in control and authoritarianism. Does a similar pattern exist in women in China?
Method
Received parenting was assessed by a shortened version of the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) in two groups of Han Chinese women: 1970 clinically ascertained cases with recurrent MD and 2597 matched controls. MD was assessed at personal interview.
Results
Factor analysis of the PBI revealed three factors for both mothers and fathers: warmth, protectiveness, and authoritarianism. Lower warmth and protectiveness and higher authoritarianism from both mother and father were significantly associated with risk for recurrent MD. Parental warmth was positively correlated with parental protectiveness and negatively correlated with parental authoritarianism. When examined together, paternal warmth was more strongly associated with lowered risk for MD than maternal warmth. Furthermore, paternal protectiveness was negatively and maternal protectiveness positively associated with risk for MD.
Conclusions
Although the structure of received parenting is very similar in China and Western countries, the association with MD is not. High parental protectiveness is generally pathogenic in Western countries but protective in China, especially when received from the father. Our results suggest that cultural factors impact on patterns of parenting and their association with MD.
Using the INRA – University of Minnesota porcine 7000 Rad Radiation Hybrid panel (IMpRH) containing 118 clones, porcine cellular retinol binding protein gene 1 (RBP1) and plasma retinol binding protein gene 4 (RBP4) were assigned to porcine chromosomes 13 and 14, respectively. The mRNA distributions of the two genes in adult Wuzhishan pig tissues (lung, skeletal muscle, spleen, heart, stomach, large intestine, lymph node, small intestine, liver, brain, kidney and fat) were examined. One single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was identified in Laiwu, Wuzhishan, Guizhou, Bama pig breeds and a Tongcheng experimental population and analysed using a polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR–RFLP) method. Significant associations were found between different genotypes of A/G156 and maximum carcass length (LM), minimum carcass length (LN), haemoglobin (HGB), mean corpuscular volume haemoglobin (MCH), and day to slaughter weight (age) traits in the Tongcheng experimental population. This SNP locus might be used as a genetic marker in pig breeding and production.
Endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase H hydrolyzes the β-(1–4)-glycosidic link of the N,N′-diacetylchitobiose core of high-mannose and hybrid asparagine-linked oligosaccharides. Seven mutants of the active site residues, Asp130 and Glu132, have been prepared, assayed, and crystallized. They include single site mutants of each residue to the corresponding amide, to Ala and to the alternate acidic residue, and to the double amide mutant. The mutants of Asp130 are more active than the corresponding Glu132 mutants, consistent with the assignment of the latter residue as the primary catalytic residue. The amide mutants are more active than the alternate acidic residue mutants, which in turn are more active than the Ala mutants. The structures of the Asn mutant of Asp130 and the double mutant are very similar to that of the wild-type enzyme. Several residues surrounding the mutated residues, including some that form part of the core of the β-barrel and especially Tyr168 and Tyr244, adopt a very different conformation in the structures of the other two mutants of Asp130 and in the Asp mutant of Glu132. The results show that the residues in the upper layers of the β-barrel can organize into two very distinct packing arrangements that depend on subtle electrostatic and steric differences and that greatly affect the geometry of the substrate-binding cleft. Consequently, the relative activities of several of the mutants are defined by structural changes, leading to impaired substrate binding, in addition to changes in functionality.
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