Common susceptibility variants of KDR and IGF-1R are associated with poststroke depression in the Chinese population

Background Depression,one of the most frequent complications after stroke,increases the disease’s burden and physical disability.Poststroke depression(PSD)is a multifactorial disease with genetic,environmental and biological factors involved in its occurrence.Genetic studies on PSD to date have mainly focused on the monoamine system and brain-derived neurotrophic factors.However,understanding is still limited about the influence of the single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP)of other neurotrophic factors on PSD.Aims The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between seven vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)family gene variants that occur with PSD.Methods A multicentre candidate gene study from five hospitals in Jiangsu Province from June 2013 to December 2014 involved 121 patients with PSD and 131 patients with non-PSD.Demographic characteristics and neuropsychological assessments were collected.Theχ^(2)test was used to evaluate categorical variables,while the independent t-test was applied to continuous variables.SNPs in seven genes(VEGFA,VEGFB,KDR,FLT-1,IGF-1,IGF-1R and PlGF)were genotyped.Single-marker association for PSD was analysed byχ^(2)tests and logistic regression using SPSS and PLINK software.Results Patients with PSD included more women and those with lower education levels,lower body mass indexes,lower Mini-Mental State Examination scores,and higher scores on the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale than non-PSD patients.Ninety-two SNPs with seven genes were genotyped and passed quality control.The rs7692791 CC genotypes,the C allele of KDR and the rs9282715 T allele of IGF-1R increased the risk for PSD(χ^(2)=7.881,p=0.019;χ^(2)=4.259,p=0.039;χ^(2)=4.222,p=0.040,respectively).In addition,the SNP rs7692791 of KDR was significantly associated with PSD by the logistic regression of an additive model(p=0.015,OR=9.584,95%CI:1.549 to 59.31).Conclusions Patients with rs7692791 C allele carriers or the CC genotype of KDR and the rs9282715 T allele of IGF-1R may have PSD susceptibility.Findings such as these may help clinicians to identify the high-risk population for PSD earlier and,thus,enable them to provide more timely interventions.

Integrated Mobility: A Research in Progress

We here present an ongoing research project about an integrated real time mobility assistant, which has been developed for the call “Personal Integrated Mobility” of the EU framework program. The assistant is aimed to support personal mobility in a near future scenario, where green, shared or public transports are replacing the current private, carbon transportation system. The assistant handles itineraries, which are based on goals of time, energy/pollution and cost, and supports users both before and during the trip. The service will gather and interpret any relevant source of information on transport resources and their availability. Information includes user generated content and social data. Given the globalization of users and the hourly peaks of mobility, the assistant is a cloud service, which integrates existing technologies;however a global extension requires a federation of clouds and, above all, the interpretation and validation of social data. These can be considered major research challenges.

Unraveling adaptive changes in electric vehicle charging behavior toward the postpandemic era by federated meta-learning

Dear Editor,Electric vehicle(EV)sales have significantly grown over the years to fulfill growing demands for economic travel and greenhouse gas mitigation.1 However,the surge in the number of EVs has led to charging anxiety as users struggle to find an available charging station before running out of electricity,resulting in longer reserve and waiting times.2 Moreover,severe mobility restrictions caused by infectious diseases,such as coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19),have greatly affected people’s travel behavior3,4 and hindered their willingness to use EVs,given that charging in public spaces consumes time and increases the risk of contracting the virus.5 This implies that in the postpandemic era,in which individuals coexist with the virus,the interplay between the two important trends,namely vehicle electrification and mobility restrictions,can extensively affect people’s daily commuting by using EVs.

水对离子液体微观结构和传输性能的影响

离子液体以独特的结构性质和优异的物化性能而显示出日益广阔的应用前景,但实际应用中,不可避免的混入一些水,水的存在会对离子液体结构和性质产生显著影响。本工作采用分子动力学模拟方法系统研究了不同含量的水对三种离子液体([Bmim][B(CN)_(4)],[Bmim][PF_(6)]和[Bmim][Tf_(2)N])微观结构、传输性能和相互作用的影响规律。通过氢键数目的分析可发现,随水含量增加,阴离子与水之间的氢键数目显著增加,而阴离子与阳离子之间氢键数目显著下降;阴离子与水之间的氢键数目大于阳离子与水之间的氢键数目。进一步计算了自扩散系数,发现随水浓度的升高,离子液体的自扩散系数逐渐增大,且水溶性较高的离子液体扩散系数显著增加。径向分布函数和配位数的计算结果表明,阴离子与水的相互作用强于阳离子与水的作用,但水的存在对阴离子与阳离子之间结构几乎没有影响。空间分布函数的结果表明,阴离子和水分子在阳离子咪唑环上H5和H4位置的分布区域存在竞争,减弱了阴离子与阳离子之间的相互作用。本研究有助于进一步理解离子液体与水体系的微观作用机理和推进离子液体的应用。

Molecular level understanding of CO_(2) capture in ionic liquid/polyimide composite membrane

Ionic liquid(IL)/polyimide(PI)composite membranes demonstrate promise for use in CO_(2)separation applications.However,few studies have focused on the microscopic mechanism of CO_(2)in these composite systems,which is important information for designing new membranes.In this work,a series of systems of CO_(2)in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide composited with 4,4-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphthalic anhydride(6FDA)-based PI,6FDA-2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-1,4-phenylene-diamine,at different IL concentrations were investigated by all-atom molecular dynamics simulation.The formation of IL regions in PI was found,and the IL regions gradually became continuous channels with increasing IL concentrations.The analysis of the radial distribution functions and hydrogen bond numbers demonstrated that PI had a stronger interaction with cations than anions.However,the hydrogen bonds among PI chains were destroyed by the addition of IL,which was favorable for transporting CO_(2).Furthermore,the self-diffusion coefficient and free energy barrier suggested that the diffusion coefficient of CO_(2)decreased with increasing IL concentrations up to 35 wt-%due to the decrease of the fractional free volume of the composite membrane.However,the CO_(2)selfdiffusion coefficients increased when the IL contents were higher than 35 wt-%,which was attributed to the formation of continuous IL domain that benefitted the transportation of CO_(2).