Brain region-specific roles of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in social stress-induced depressive-like behavior

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor is a key factor in stress adaptation and avoidance of a social stress behavioral response.Recent studies have shown that brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression in stressed mice is brain region–specific,particularly involving the corticolimbic system,including the ventral tegmental area,nucleus accumbens,prefrontal cortex,amygdala,and hippocampus.Determining how brain-derived neurotrophic factor participates in stress processing in different brain regions will deepen our understanding of social stress psychopathology.In this review,we discuss the expression and regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in stress-sensitive brain regions closely related to the pathophysiology of depression.We focused on associated molecular pathways and neural circuits,with special attention to the brain-derived neurotrophic factor–tropomyosin receptor kinase B signaling pathway and the ventral tegmental area–nucleus accumbens dopamine circuit.We determined that stress-induced alterations in brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels are likely related to the nature,severity,and duration of stress,especially in the above-mentioned brain regions of the corticolimbic system.Therefore,BDNF might be a biological indicator regulating stress-related processes in various brain regions.

Glucocorticoid receptor signaling in the brain and its involvement in cognitive function

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis regulates the secretion of glucoco rticoids in response to environmental challenges.In the brain,a nuclear receptor transcription fa ctor,the glucocorticoid recepto r,is an important component of the hypothalamicpituitary-a d renal axis's negative feedback loop and plays a key role in regulating cognitive equilibrium and neuroplasticity.The glucoco rticoid receptor influences cognitive processes,including glutamate neurotransmission,calcium signaling,and the activation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor-mediated pathways,through a combination of genomic and non-genomic mechanisms.Protein interactions within the central nervous system can alter the expression and activity of the glucocorticoid receptor,there by affecting the hypothalamic-pituitary-a d renal axis and stress-related cognitive functions.An appropriate level of glucocorticoid receptor expression can improve cognitive function,while excessive glucocorticoid receptors or long-term exposure to glucoco rticoids may lead to cognitive impairment.Patients with cognitive impairment-associated diseases,such as Alzheimer's disease,aging,depression,Parkinson's disease,Huntington's disease,stroke,and addiction,often present with dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and glucocorticoid receptor expression.This review provides a comprehensive overview of the functions of the glucoco rticoid receptor in the hypothalamic-pituitary-a d renal axis and cognitive activities.It emphasizes that appropriate glucocorticoid receptor signaling fa cilitates learning and memory,while its dysregulation can lead to cognitive impairment.This provides clues about how glucocorticoid receptor signaling can be targeted to ove rcome cognitive disability-related disorders.

Exploring the psychological impact of the 2022 SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant outbreak in China

To the editor:The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)pandemic in 2020 on mental health was substantialin Chinai2and various other countries.34 Beyond the direct consequences of COVID-19,the pandemic created an environment in which many determinants of mental health were affected.Issues associated with the pandemic,such as loss of livelihood,limited access to medical services,reduced social interactions,and economic downturn,could potentially have adverse effects on the population's mental well-being.5 In November 2021,the World Health Organization(WHO)designated the new variant of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2),variant B.1.1.529,as a variant of concern and named it Omicron;its rapid mutation and spread raised a new global health concern.

Earth-abundant coal-derived carbon nanotube/carbon composites as efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts for rechargeable zinc-air batteries

The exploration of active and robust electrocatalysts for both the oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)and oxygen evolution reaction(OER)is the bottleneck to realize the commercialization of rechargeable metal-air batteries and regenerative fuel cells.Here we report facile synthesis of three-dimensional(3 D)carbon nanotube(CNT)/carbon composites using earth-abundant coal as the carbon source,hydrogen reductant and heteroatom dopant to grow CNTs.The prepared composite featuring 3 D structural merits and multiple active sites can efficiently catalyze both ORR and OER,affording high activity,fast kinetics,and long-term stability.With the additional incorporation of manganese,the developed catalyst afforded a potential difference of 0.80 V between ORR at the half wave potential and OER at a current density of 10 mA cm^(-2).The optimized sample has presented excellent OER performance within a constructed solar-powered water splitting system with continuously generating oxygen bubbles at anode.Notably,it can be further used as a durable air-electrode catalyst in constructed Zn-air battery,delivering an initial discharge/charge voltage gap of 0.73 V,a remained voltaic efficiency of 61.2%after 160 cycles and capability to power LED light for at least 80 h.This study provides an efficient approach for converting traditional energy resource i.e.coal to value-added alternative oxygen electrocatalysts in renewable energy conversion systems.

Auxiliary Diagnosis Based on the Knowledge Graph of TCM Syndrome

As one of the most valuable assets in China,traditional medicine has a long history and contains pieces of knowledge.The diagnosis and treatment of Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM)has benefited from the natural language processing technology.This paper proposes a knowledge-based syndrome reasoning method in computer-assisted diagnosis.This method is based on the established knowledge graph of TCM and this paper introduces the reinforcement learning algorithm to mine the hidden relationship among the entities and obtain the reasoning path.According to this reasoning path,we could infer the path from the symptoms to the syndrome and get all possibilities via the relationship between symptoms and causes.Moreover,this study applies the Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency(TF-IDF)idea to the computer-assisted diagnosis of TCM for the score of syndrome calculation.Finally,combined with symptoms,syndrome,and causes,the disease could be confirmed comprehensively by voting,and the experiment shows that the system can help doctors and families to disease diagnosis effectively.

Analysis of Carbon Content in Off-season Flowering and Non-flowering Longan Trees

After flower induction, some longan trees can successfully blossom and bear fruit, while others with similar tree body status can only sprout leaf buds. In order to investigate the main reason for these differences, in this study, off-season flowering and non-flowering longan trees were used as experimental materials to analyze the changes of carbon content in mature leaves, tender leaves, mature shoots, tender shoots and terminal buds of longan trees after flower induction by potassium chlorate. The result showed that carbon content played an important role in flowering process. Off-season longan trees with carbon content in mature leaves reached 50.93 mg/g could successfully blossom, but those with carbon content in mature leaves lower than 37.40 mg/g were usually difficult to blossom. In addition, the maturity of tender leaves posed great influence on flowering. Specifically, tender leaves with a higher maturity contained higher carbon content and could easily blossom, which could be used as a new indicator to evaluate flower induction in off-season longan trees.

Differences in Carbon Nutrition between On-season and Off-season Longan during the Flowering Process

Flower-bud differentiation is the most critical stage of fruit yield formation, as well as a complicated carbon transfer process. To understand the changes of carbon during the flower bud differentiation process of longan, it is very important to adopt suitable planting measures and control flowering time. This study fo- cused on the changes of sugar and starch content of on-season and off-season longan during the flowering process. The results showed that the accumulation and transformation of carben differed between on-season and off-season longan during flower-bud differentiation process ; to be specific, sugar and starch content in tissues differentiated from apical buds of on-season longan were reduced at the late flower-bud physiological differentiation stage except in leaf buds ; on the contrary, sugar and starch content in off-season longan increased at the late flower-bud physiological differentiation stage： specifically, total sugar content increased from 15.43 （ - 7 d） to 31.38 mg/g （7 d） ; starch content increased from 5.42 to 8.31 mg/g during this time, which may be relevant to the external environment or tree original metabolism damaged by potassium chlorate.

Deep-learning-based motion-correction algorithm in optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy

In this study,we propose a deep-learning-based method to correct motion artifacts in optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy(OR-PAM).The method is a convolutional neural network that establishes an end-to-end map from input raw data with motion artifacts to output corrected images.First,we performed simulation studies to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.Second,we employed this method to process images of rat brain vessels with multiple motion artifacts to evaluate its performance for in vivo applications.The results demonstrate that this method works well for both large blood vessels and capillary networks.In comparison with traditional methods,the proposed method in this study can be easily modified to satisfy different scenarios of motion corrections in OR-PAM by revising the training sets.

Photocatalytic one-step synthesis of Ag nanoparticles without reducing agent and their catalytic redox performance supported on carbon

Synthesis of silver nanoparticles(Ag NPs) with state-of-the-art chemical or photo-reduction methods generally takes several steps and requires both reducing agents and stabilizers to obtain NPs with narrow size distribution.Herein, we report a novel method to synthesize Ag NPs rapidly in one step, achieving typical particle sizes in the range from 5 to 15 nm.The synthesis steps only involve three chemicals without any reducing agent: AgNO3 as precursor, polyvinylpyrrolidone(PVP) as stabilizer, and AgCl as photocatalyst.The Ag NPs were supported on carbon and showed excellent performance in thermal catalytic pnitrophenol reduction and nitrobenzene hydrogenation, and as electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction.

An Investigation on the Relationship between Oxidative Damage and Flowering of Longan (Dimocarpus longan Loureiro)

Eight-year-old ＂Shixia＂ longan （ Dimocarpus longan Loureiro ） trees were treated under low temperature stress, oxidative stress, and natural low temperature conditions ＋ experimental agents to investigate the relationship between oxidative damage and flowering of longan. The results indicated that oxidative stress was conducive to flowering of longan, which also led to accumulation of reactive oxygen species in various tissues of longan. The detection results of reactive oxygen species, ascorbic acid content and MDA content in apical buds and leaves showed that ascorbic acid could inhibit flowering of longan, while MDA could promote flowering of longan. Therefore, there was a positive correlation between reactive oxygen species and flowering of longan.

The Beneficial Effect of Enriched Environment on Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disease, its main clinical symptoms are the progressive decline of cognitive and memory functions. Enriched Environment (EE) achieves the goal of improving brain cognitive reserve by enhancing the multi-directional stimulation on movement, sensory and cognitive systems of animals. And EE can regulate the levels of various trophic factors in the brain, promote synaptic regeneration and enhance neural plasticity to reduce the loss of neurons induced by inflammation. At present, there is still no effective treatment for AD and the clinical intervention drug is expensive. So it is essential to actively explore non-drug treatment. This review will explain the effects of EE on learning ability, memory ability and mental behavior in AD, and provide a new direction for the treatment and rehabilitation of AD.

An anonymous authentication and secure data transmission scheme for the Internet of Things based on blockchain

With the widespread use of network infrastructures such as 5G and low-power wide-area networks,a large number of the Internet of Things(IoT)device nodes are connected to the network,generating massive amounts of data.Therefore,it is a great challenge to achieve anonymous authentication of IoT nodes and secure data transmission.At present,blockchain technology is widely used in authentication and s data storage due to its decentralization and immutability.Recently,Fan et al.proposed a secure and efficient blockchain-based IoT authentication and data sharing scheme.We studied it as one of the state-of-the-art protocols and found that this scheme does not consider the resistance to ephemeral secret compromise attacks and the anonymity of IoT nodes.To overcome these security flaws,this paper proposes an enhanced authentication and data transmission scheme,which is verified by formal security proofs and informal security analysis.Furthermore,Scyther is applied to prove the security of the proposed scheme.Moreover,it is demonstrated that the proposed scheme achieves better performance in terms of communication and computational cost compared to other related schemes.

PINK1 kinase dysfunction triggers neurodegeneration in the primate brain without impacting mitochondrial homeostasis

In vitro studies have established the prevalent theory that the mitochondrial kinase PINK1 protects neurodegeneration by removing damaged mitochondria in Parkinson's disease(PD).However,difficulty in detecting endogenous PINK1 protein in rodent brains and cell lines has prevented the rigorous investigation of the in vivo role of PINK1.Here we report that PINK1 kinase form is selectively expressed in the human and monkey brains.CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deficiency of PINK1 causes similar neurodegeneration in the brains of fetal and adult monkeys as well as cultured monkey neurons without affecting mitochondrial protein expression and morphology.Importantly,PINK1 mutations in the primate brain and human cells reduce protein phosphorylation that is important for neuronal function and survival.Our findings suggest that PINK1 kinase activity rather than its mitochondrial function is essential for the neuronal survival in the primate brains and that its kinase dysfunction could be involved in the pathogenesis of PD.

Efficacy and safety of high-dose esomeprazole–amoxicillin dual therapy for Helicobacter pylori rescue treatment:a multicenter,prospective,randomized,controlled trial

Background:High-dose dual therapy(HDDT)with proton pump inhibitors(PPIs)and amoxicillin has attracted widespread attention due to its favorable efficacy in eradicating Helicobacter pylori(H.pylori).This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of high-dose PPI-amoxicillin dual therapy and bismuth-containing quadruple therapy for H.pylori rescue treatment.Methods:This was a prospective,randomized,multicenter,non-inferiority trial.Patients recruited from eight centers who had failed previous treatment were randomly(1:1)allocated to two eradication groups:HDDT(esomeprazole 40 mg and amoxicillin 1000 mg three times daily;theHDDTgroup)and bismuth-containing quadruple therapy(esomeprazole 40 mg,bismuth potassium citrate 220 mg,and furazolidone 100 mg twice daily,combined with tetracycline 500 mg three times daily;the tetracycline,furazolidone,esomeprazole,and bismuth[TFEB]group)for 14 days.The primary endpoint was the H.pylori eradication rate.The secondary endpoints were adverse effects,symptom improvement rates,and patient compliance.Results:A total of 658 patients who met the criteria were enrolled in this study.The HDDT group achieved eradication rates of 75.4%(248/329),81.0%(248/306),and 81.3%(248/305)asdetermined by the intention-to-treat(ITT),modified intention-totreat(MITT),and per-protocol(PP)analyses,respectively.The eradication rates were similar to those in the TFEB group:78.1%(257/329),84.2%(257/305),and 85.1%(257/302).The lower 95%confidence interval boundary(9.19%in the ITT analysis,9.21%in the MITT analysis,and9.73%in the PP analysis)was greater than the predefined non-inferiority margin of10%,establishing a non-inferiority of the HDDT group vs.the TFEB group.The incidence of adverse events in the HDDT group was significantly lower than that in the TFEB group(11.1%vs.26.8%,P<0.001).Symptom improvement rates and patients’compliance were similar between the two groups.Conclusions:Fourteen-day HDDT is non-inferior to bismuth-containing quadruple therapy,with fewer adverse effects and good treatment compliance,suggesting HDDT as an alternative for H.pylori rescue treatment in the local region.Trial registration:Clinicaltrials.gov,NCT04678492.

扫描电化学显微镜在我国金属腐蚀和防护领域的研究进展

金属腐蚀是一种典型的界面电化学反应过程,在金属腐蚀过程中形成的阳极和阴极活性区会导致金属和溶液界面微区的离子浓度发生变化,进而影响金属腐蚀过程的进行.扫描电化学显微镜(scanning electrochemical microscopy,SECM)作为一种扫描探针技术,不但能够表征金属微区腐蚀的物理形貌变化,而且可以记录样品微区的电化学腐蚀过程并探究腐蚀机理,因此在金属腐蚀与防护领域起着重要作用.本综述从回顾我国资深科学家在SECM技术引入中国后所做的与金属腐蚀与防护相关的初始性科学研究入手,首先简要描述了SECM的组成和在金属腐蚀与防护研究领域所应用到的工作模式,进而系统总结评述了我国科研人员近5年利用SECM在金属腐蚀与防护研究方面所作的贡献,最后对SECM在金属腐蚀与防护研究领域面临的挑战进行展望.

Bioactive skin-mimicking hydrogel band-aids for diabetic wound healing and infectious skin incision treatment

The treatment of diabetic chronic wounds remains a global challenge due to the up-regulated inflammation response,oxidant stress,and persistent infection during healing process.Developing wound dressing materials with ideal biocompatibility,adequate mechanical strength,considerable under-water adhesion,sufficient anti-inflammation,antioxidant,and antibacterial properties is on-demand for clinical applications.In this study,we developed a bioactive skin-mimicking hydrogel band-aid through the combination of tannic acid(TA)and imidazolidinyl urea reinforced polyurethane(PMI)(TAP hydrogel)and explored its potentials in various medical applications,including hemostasis,normal skin incision,full-thickness skin wounds,and bacterial-infection skin incision on diabetic mice.TA was loaded into PMI hydrogel network to enhance the mechanical properties of TAP hydrogels through multiple non-covalent interactions(break strength:0.28-0.64 MPa;elongation at break:650-930%),which could resist the local stress and maintain the structural integrity of wound dressings during applications.Moreover,owing to the promising moisture-resistant adhesiveness and organ hemostasis,outstanding anti-inflammation,antibacterial,and antioxidant properties,TAP hydrogels could efficiently promote the recovery of skin incision and defects on diabetic mice.To further simulate the practical situation and explore the potential in clinical application,we also verified the treatment efficiency of TAP hydrogel in S.aureus-infected skin incision model on diabetic mice.

High-yield and low-cost separation of high-purity semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes with closed-loop recycling of raw materials and solvents

Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs) are the foundation of CNT-based electronics and optoelectronics. For practical applications, s-SWCNTs should be produced with high purity, high structural quality, low cost, and high yield. Currently conjugated polymer wrapping method shows great potential to fulfill these requirements due to its advantages of simple operation process, high purity separation, and easy scaling-up. However, only a small portion of both CNTs and polymers go into the final solution, and most of them are discarded after a single use, resulting in high cost and low yield. In this paper, we introduce a closed-loop recycling strategy, in which raw materials (CNTs and polymers) and solvents were all recycled and reused for multiple separation cycles. In each cycle, high-purity (> 99.9%) s-SWCNTs were obtained with no significant change of structural quality. After 7 times of recycling and separation, the material cost was reduced to ∼ 1% in comparison with commercially available products, and total yield was increased to 36% in comparison with 2%–5% for single cycle separation. Our proposed closed-loop recycling strategy paves the way for low-cost and high-yield mass production of high-quality s-SWCNTs.

Comparative study of the extraction selectivity of PFO-BPy and PCz for small to large diameter single-walled carbon nanotubes

Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes(s-SWCNTs)are fascinating materials for future electronic and optical applications.Conjugated polymer wrapping is one of the most promising methods for mass production of high purity s-SWCNTs.However,its chiral selectivity is relatively inferior to other s-SWCNT production methods.In this paper,the chiral selectivity of two polymers,poly[(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt-co-(6,6′-{2,2′-bipyridine})](PFO-BPy)and poly[9-(1-octylonoyl)-9H-carbazole-2,7-diyl](PCz),which are representatives of widely used polyfluorene and polycarbazole families,respectively,were comparatively studied.Both polymers exhibited high selectivity for a subset of existing chiral species in each of the commercially available raw SWCNT materials(CoMoCAT,HiPco,and arc-discharge)which cover a diameter range of 0.6–1.8 nm.Less chiral species were selected by PFO-BPy from small diameter(<1 nm)raw SWCNT materials,while more from large diameter(>1.2 nm)raw materials.High chiral purity(6,5)(>99%)and(7,5)(>75%)solutions were extracted by PFO-BPy and PCz from CoMoCAT materials,respectively.The different chiral angle and diameter selections for different raw materials by both polymers were ascribed to their different geometrical structures and related polymer-tube interactions.Our work provides indispensable information for better understanding the mechanism of polymer wrapping method and improving extraction of single chirality sSWCNTs.

Calibrating SECCM measurements by means of a nanoelectrode ruler.The intrinsic oxygen reduction activity of PtNi catalyst nanoparticles

Scanning electrochemical cell microscopy(SECCM)is increasingly applied to determine the intrinsic catalytic activity of single electrocatalyst particle.This is especially feasible if the catalyst nanoparticles are large enough that they can be found and counted in post-SECCM scanning electron microscopy images.Evidently,this becomes impossible for very small nanoparticles and hence,a catalytic current measured in one landing zone of the SECCM droplet cannot be correlated to the exact number of catalyst particles.We show,that by introducing a ruler method employing a carbon nanoelectrode decorated with a countable number of the same catalyst particles from which the catalytic activity can be determined,the activity determined using SECCM from many spots can be converted in the intrinsic catalytic activity of a certain number of catalyst nanoparticles.