Two-photon live imaging of direct glia-to-neuron conversion in the mouse cortex

Over the past decade,a growing number of studies have reported transcription factor-based in situ reprogramming that can directly conve rt endogenous glial cells into functional neurons as an alternative approach for n euro regeneration in the adult mammalian central ne rvous system.Howeve r,many questions remain regarding how a terminally differentiated glial cell can transform into a delicate neuron that forms part of the intricate brain circuitry.In addition,concerns have recently been raised around the absence of astrocyte-to-neuron conversion in astrocytic lineage-tra cing mice.In this study,we employed repetitive two-photon imaging to continuously capture the in situ astrocyte-to-neuron conversion process following ecto pic expression of the neural transcription factor NeuroD1 in both prolife rating reactive astrocytes and lineage-tra ced astrocytes in the mouse cortex.Time-lapse imaging over several wee ks revealed the ste p-by-step transition from a typical astrocyte with numero us short,tapered branches to a typical neuro n with a few long neurites and dynamic growth cones that actively explored the local environment.In addition,these lineage-converting cells were able to migrate ra dially or to ngentially to relocate to suitable positions.Furthermore,two-photon Ca2+imaging and patch-clamp recordings confirmed that the newly generated neuro ns exhibited synchronous calcium signals,repetitive action potentials,and spontaneous synaptic responses,suggesting that they had made functional synaptic connections within local neural circuits.In conclusion,we directly visualized the step-by-step lineage conversion process from astrocytes to functional neurons in vivo and unambiguously demonstrated that adult mammalian brains are highly plastic with respect to their potential for neuro regeneration and neural circuit reconstruction.

Characteristics of gravity anomalies and tectonic analysis of Enderby Land in East Antarctica and its adjacent areas

Enderby Land in East Antarctica and its adjacent areas,which are closely related to the Indian Plate in their geological evolution,have become one of the key zones for studies on how the Antarctic continent evolves.Based on the isostasy and flexure theories of the lithosphere and using the CRUST1.0 model as the depth constraint,this paper uses the gravity field model EIGEN-6C4 and topographic data to calculate the isostatic gravity anomalies of Enderby Land and its adjacent areas.Then,the crustal thickness of the study area is calculated,and three comprehensive geophysical interpretation profiles that vertically span the study area are plotted.The results show that the flexural isostatic gravity anomalies in Enderby Land and its adjacent areas are closely related to the regional tectonic setting,and the anomalies in different regions differ substantially,ranging from−50×10^(−5)m/s^(2)to 85×10^(−5)m/s^(2).A zone of high isostatic gravity anomalies(30×10^(−5)−80×10^(−5)m/s^(2))is distributed outside the Cooperation Sea and Queen Maud Land,which may be plate remnants generated by early rifting.Except for the Kerguelen Plateau,which was formed by a hotspot and has a crustal thickness of 15 km,the thickness of the oceanic crust in other parts of the study area changes slightly by approximately 4–9 km,with the thinnest part being in Enderby Basin.The thickness of the inland crust along the coastline increases with the elevation,with the maximum thickness reaching 34 km.The isostatic gravity anomalies corresponding to the zone of high magnetic anomalies along the continental margin of Queen Maud Land are negative and small,with an isostatic adjustment trend indicating Moho surface uplift,and those on the edge of central Enderby Land are near zero,approaching the isostatic state,which may be caused by the magmatism at the early stage of rifting.The continental-oceanic boundary should be close to the contour line of the crustal thickness 10–12 km on the outer edge of the coastline.

Gamma-,neutron-,and muon-induced environmental background simulations for 100Mo-based bolometric double-beta decay experiment at Jinping Underground Laboratory

The sensitivity of an experiment to detect the Majorana neutrino mass via neutrinoless double-beta decay(0νββ) strongly depends on the rate of background events that can mimic this decay. One major source of this background is the radioactive emissions from the laboratory environment. In our study, we focused on assessing the background contributions from environmental gamma rays, neutrons, and underground muons to the Jinping bolometric demonstration experiment. This experiment uses an array of lithium molybdate crystal bolometers to probe the potential 0νββ decay of the100Mo isotope at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory. We also evaluated the shielding effectiveness of the experimental setup through an attenuation study. Our simulations indicate that the combined background from environmental gamma rays, neutrons, and muons in the relevant100Mo 0νββ Q-value region can be reduced to approximately 0.003 cts/kg/keV/yr.

The research progress of an E//B neutral particle analyzer

An E//B neutral particle analyzer(NPA)has been designed and is under development at Sichuan University and Southwestern Institute of Physics.The main purpose of the E//B NPA is to measure the distribution function of fast ions in the HL-2A/3 tokamak.The E//B NPA contains three main units,i.e.the stripping unit,the analyzing unit and the detection unit.A gas stripping chamber was adopted as the stripping unit.The results of the simulations and beam tests for the stripping chamber are presented.Parallel electric and magnetic fields provided by a NdFeB permanent magnet and two parallel electric plates were designed and constructed for the analyzing unit.The calibration of the magnetic and electric fields was performed using a 50 kV electron cyclotron resonance ion source(ECRIS)platform.The detection unit consists of 32lutetium-yttrium oxyorthosilicate(LYSO)detector modules arranged in two rows.The response functions ofα,hydrogen ions(H^(+),H_(2)^(+)and H_(3)^(+))andγfor a detector module were measured with^(241)Am,^(137)Cs and^(152)Eu sources together with the 50 kV ECRIS platform.The overall results indicate that the designed E//B NPA device is capable of measuring the intensity of neutral hydrogen and deuteron atoms with energy higher than 20 keV.

Spatial distribution of soil moisture,salinity and organic matter in Manas River watershed,Xinjiang,China

With the classical statistical and geostatistical methods,the study of the spatial distribution and its influence factors of soil water,salinity and organic matter was carried out for 0-70 cm soil layers in Manas River watershed.The results showed that the soil moisture data from all soil layers exhibited a normal distribution,with average values of 14.08%-21.55%.Geostatistical analysis revealed that the content of soil moisture had a moderate spatial autocorrelation with the ratios of nugget/sill ranging from 0.500 to 0.718,which implies that the spatial pattern of soil moisture is influenced by the combined effects of structural factors and random factors.Remarkable spatial distributions with stripped and mottled features were found for soil moisture in all different soil layers.The landform and crop planting had a relatively big influence on the spatial distribution of soil moisture;total soil salinity was high in east but low in west,and non-salinized soil and lightly salinized soil appeared at the northwest and southwest of the study area.Under the effect of reservoir leakage,the heavily salinized soils are widely distributed in the middle of the study area.The areas of the non-salinized and lightly salinized soils decreased gradually with soil depth increment,which is contrary to the case for saline soils that reached a maximum of 245.67 km2 at the layer of 50-70 cm.The types of soil salinization in Manas River watershed were classified into four classes:the sulfate,chloride-sulfate,sulfate-chloride and chloride.The sulfate salinized soil is most widely distributed in the surface layer.The areas of chloride-sulfate,sulfate-chloride,and chloride salinized soils increased gradually along with the increment of soil depth;the variation range of the average values of soil organic matter content was between 7.48%-11.33%.The ratios of nugget/sill reduced gradually from 0.698 to 0.299 with soil depth increment,which shows that the content of soil organic matter has a moderate spatial autocorrelation.The soil organic matter in all soil layers met normal distribution after logarithmic transformation.The spatial distribution patterns of soil organic matter and soil moisture were similar;the areas with high organic matter contents were mainly distributed in the south of the study area,with the lowest contents in the middle.

The climatic and hydrological changes and environmental responses recorded in lake sediments of Xinjiang,China

Based on the analyses of environmental proxy data in lake sediments and instrumental records of Xinjiang in northwest China,the Holocene climate and hydrological variability and its environmental responses were studied in different time scales and regions. The results showed that the Holocene climate variability had obvious differences between the north and south of Xinjiang. In northern Xinjiang,the Holocene climate was dry in the early period,humid in the middle period,and then changed to dry in the late period. However,the climate transition times were not consistent in different regions. In southern Xinjiang,although there were many different types of climate change patterns inferred from different catchments,the warm and wet climate was recorded in most lake sediments in the middle Holocene. According to comparisons of some millennium scale records in lake sediments,the climate was warm and dry in the past 100 years. It can be concluded the climate showed a trend of aridity in Holocene. Especially in recent 50 years,the lake area has been shrinking rapidly because of the population growth and social economic development,which brings some environmental problems. Lake level and area changes were sensitively affected by the climate variation in geological history of Xinjiang and the lake level will continue to shrink because of the drought climate and strengthened human activities.

Involvement of NLRP3-inflammasome pathway in noise-induced hearing loss

The inflammasome is a multiprotein oligomer in the cell cytoplasm and is part of the innate immune system.It plays a crucial role in the pathological process of noise-induced hearing loss(NIHL).However,the mechanisms of NLR family pyrin domain containing 3(NLRP3)inflammasome activation in NIHL have not been clearly demonstrated.In this study,miniature pigs were exposed to white noise at 120 dB(A)and auditory brainstem response measurements were used to measure their hearing function.Immunofluorescence staining,confocal laser scanning microscopy,western blot assay,and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction were used to analyze inflammasome-related protein distribution and expression.NLRP3,interleukin-1β,interleukin-18,and cleaved-caspase-1 were highly expressed in the cochlea after 120 dB(A)white noise exposure.Our findings suggest that NLRP3-inflammasomes in the cochlea may be activated after acoustic trauma,which may be an important mechanism of noise-induced hearing loss.

Alignment calibration and performance study of the STAR PXL detector

We report in this paper the alignment calibration of the STAR pixel detector(PXL) prototype for the RHIC2013 run and performance study of the full PXL detector installed and commissioned in the RHIC 2014 run. PXL detector is the innermost two silicon layers of the STAR heavy flavor tracker aiming at high-precision reconstruction of secondary decay vertex of heavy flavor particles. To achieve the physics goals, the calibration work was done on the detector with high precision. A histogram-based method was successfully applied for the alignment calibration, and the detector efficiency after alignment was studied using both p t p collision data and cosmic ray data.

Explicit Symplectic Geometric Algorithms for Quaternion Kinematical Differential Equation

Solving quaternion kinematical differential equations(QKDE) is one of the most significant problems in the automation, navigation, aerospace and aeronautics literatures. Most existing approaches for this problem neither preserve the norm of quaternions nor avoid errors accumulated in the sense of long term time. We present explicit symplectic geometric algorithms to deal with the quaternion kinematical differential equation by modelling its time-invariant and time-varying versions with Hamiltonian systems and adopting a three-step strategy. Firstly,a generalized Euler's formula and Cayley-Euler formula are proved and used to construct symplectic single-step transition operators via the centered implicit Euler scheme for autonomous Hamiltonian system. Secondly, the symplecticity, orthogonality and invertibility of the symplectic transition operators are proved rigorously. Finally, the explicit symplectic geometric algorithm for the time-varying quaternion kinematical differential equation, i.e., a non-autonomous and non-linear Hamiltonian system essentially, is designed with the theorems proved. Our novel algorithms have simple structures, linear time complexity and constant space complexity of computation. The correctness and efficiencies of the proposed algorithms are verified and validated via numerical simulations.

Effect of climatic change on surface environments in the typical region of Horqin Sandy Land

The town of Agura,a typical region in Horqin Sandy Land,was selected as the study area in this paper.Using 12 remote sensing images and climatic data from the past 20 years,the effects of climate change on surface environments were analyzed.The impact indices of climatic factors,along with their corresponding ranks,were used to characterize the responses of different types of surface environments to climate change.Results show that in the past 20 years,the surface environments of the study area have been deteriorating.Furthermore,there is a positive relationship between the changes in surface environments and those in climatic factors.Various climatic factors influence surface environments in different ways and at different levels.The most sensitive factor is relative humidity,followed by precipitation and evaporation.Overall,moisture is the key factor that affects the changes in surface environments of arid and semi-arid areas.

ORPOM model for optimum distribution of tree ring sampling based on the climate observation network

Tree ring dating plays an important role in obtaining past climate information.The fundamental study of obtaining tree ring samples in typical climate regions is particularly essential.The optimum distribution of tree ring sampling sites based on climate information from the Climate Observation Network(ORPOM model) is presented in this article.In this setup,the tree rings in a typical region are used for surface representation,by applying excellent correlation with the climate information as the main principle.Taking the Horqin Sandy Land in the cold and arid region of China as an example,the optimum distribution range of the tree ring sampling sites was obtained through the application of the ORPOM model,which is considered a reasonably practical scheme.

Comment on “Outcomes of different minimally invasive surgical treatments for vertebral compression fractures: An observational study”

Recently we read the article entitled“Outcomes of different minimally invasive surgical treatments for vertebral compression fractures:An observational study”.This was an observational study that reviewed the safety and efficacy of different cement augmentation modalities for vertebral compression fractures under osteoporotic condition.Overall,this is a valuable study that can provide a reference for clinical practice.On the other hand,we also noticed some points in the article and are willing to share our views.Further studies with a higher level of evidence can add more knowledge regarding relevant concerns.

Incommensurate Magnetic Order in Sm_(3)BWO_(9)with Distorted Kagome Lattice

We investigate the magnetic ground state of Sm_(3)BWO_(9)with a distorted kagome lattice.A magnetic phase transition is identified at T_(N)=0.75 K from the temperature dependence of specific heat.From 11B nuclear magnetic resonance measurements,an incommensurate magnetic order is shown by the double-horn type spectra under a c-axis magnetic field,and absence of line splitting is observed for field oriented within the ab-plane,indicating the incommensurate modulation of the internal field strictly along𝑐c-axis.From the spin dynamics,the critical slowing-down behavior is observed in the temperature dependence of 1/T_(1)with𝜇_(μ0)H⊥c-axis,which is completely absent in the case with𝜇_(μ0)H||c-axis.Based on the local symmetry of 11B sites,we analyze the hyperfine coupling tensors and propose two constraints on the possible magnetic structure.The single ion anisotropy should play an important role in determination of contrasting ground states of Sm_(3)BWO_(9) and Pr_(3)BWO_(9).

Comparative Analysis of Nutritional Components in Muscles between Wild and Cultured Masu Salmon Oncorhynchus masou

In this paper,approximate nutritional components and amino acid content were determined in muscles of female wild population(WP)with body weight of 2500-3000 g and female cultured population(CP)with body weight of 750-1250 g masu salmon Oncorhynchus masou in the gonadal development stage IV by conventional method.The results showed that there were significantly higher crude protein and significantly lower crude fat in fresh muscle of WP than that in CP(P<0.05),but not significant differences in the contents of moisture and crude ash between WP and CP(P>0.05).Eighteen kinds of amino acids were detected in muscles of WP and CP,with higher total content of amino acids(TAA),essential amino acids(EAA)and four kinds of delicious amino acids(DAA)in WP than those in CP(P<0.05).The amino acid score(AAS)and chemical score(CS)revealed that the first limiting amino acid was tryptophan in two populations,with essential amino acid index(EAAI)of 75.59%in WP and 70.77%in CP.The findings indicated that the amino acid contents in muscles of CP are lower than that of WP,but the amino acid nutritional value evaluation indicators of both populations are very close,and both have high nutritional value.

A highly effective incubation strategy enhanced the urban bird hatch success

Urbanization is currently considered one of the most rapid types of global environmental change.Urban habitats are biotically and abiotically different from their rural areas,i.e.,the ambient temperature,predator,and food availability.These novel challenges create new selection pressures,which allow one to investigate ecoevolutionary responses to contemporary environmental change.A total of 118 breeding nests were monitored for nest predation in both urban and rural areas from 2018 to 2020.We used environmental factors from urban and rural areas and behavioral data from 439 Chinese Blackbird(Turdus mandarinus)valid incubation days to understand the impact of urbanization on the incubation behavior of blackbirds and its adaptation mechanism to the urban environment.Cities have warmer ambient temperatures and lower predation pressures than rural areas.Urban blackbirds chose the incubation strategy with shorter and more bouts,while rural blackbirds selected the incubation strategy with longer and fewer bouts.The plasticity of incubation behavior of urban blackbirds was higher than that of rural areas,and the range of egg temperature was also higher than that of rural areas.In addition,incubation temperature and the number of bouts per day were the key factors affecting the day survival rate of blackbirds,and the hatching rate of urban blackbirds was higher than that of rural blackbirds.Our results provide evidence for behavioral shifts in blackbirds during adaptation to urbanization and support the central role of behavioral adaptation in the successful colonization of new environments by wildlife.These help us understand the behavioral characteristics required for wildlife to live in cities and the urban adaptors faced environmental pressures.

An efficient strategy for establishing a model of sensorineural deafness in rats

Ototoxic drugs can be used to produce a loss of cochlear hair cells to create animal models of deafness. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no report on the establishment of a rat deafness model through the combined application of aminoglycosides and loop diuretics. The aim of this study was to use single or combined administration of furosemide and kanamycin sulfate to establish rat models of deafness. The rats received intravenous injections of different doses of furosemide and/or intramuscular injections of kanamycin sulfate. The auditory brainstem response was measured to determine the hearing threshold after drug application. Immunocytochemistry and confocal microscopy were performed to evaluate inner ear morphology. In the group receiving combined administration of furosemide and kanamycin, the auditory brainstem response threshold showed significant elevation 3 days after administration, higher than that produced by furosemide or kanamycin alone. The hair cells showed varying degrees of injury, from the apical turn to the basal turn of the cochlea and from the outer hair cells to the inner hair cells. The spiral ganglion cells maintained a normal morphology during the first week after the hair cells completely disappeared, and then gradually degenerated. After 2 months, the majority of spiral ganglion cells disappeared, but a few remained. These findings demonstrate that the combined administration of furosemide and kanamycin has a synergistic ototoxic effect, and that these drugs can produce hair cell loss and hearing loss in rats. These findings suggest that even in patients with severe deafness, electronic cochlear implants may partially restore hearing.

Distributed Containment Control of Networked Nonlinear Second-order Systems With Unknown Parameters

In this paper, we study the containment control problem for nonlinear second-order systems with unknown parameters and multiple stationary/dynamic leaders. The topologies that characterize the interaction among the leaders and the followers are directed graphs. Necessary and sufficient criteria which guarantee the control objectives are established for both stationary leaders(regulation case) and dynamic leaders(dynamic tracking case) based protocols. The final states of all the followers are exclusively determined by the initial values of the leaders and the topology structures. In the regulation case, all the followers converge into the convex hull spanned by the leaders,while in the dynamic tracking case, not only the positions of the followers converge into the convex hull but also the velocities of the followers converge into the velocity convex hull of the leaders.Finally, all the theoretical results are illustrated by numerical simulations.

An Overview of Research in Distributed Attitude Coordination Control

This paper provides an overview of attitude coordination problems of multi-rigid-body with the goal of promoting research in this area. Theoretical results regarding consensus seeking with different system models, different communication topologies, different control goals and different techniques are summarized. And applications of consensus protocols to multirigid-body coordination are investigated. Finally, some future research directions and open problems are also proposed.

Fluoxetine,a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor used clinically,improves bladder function in a mouse model of moderate spinal cord injury

After spinal cord injury,the upward conduction of the spinal cord is lost,resulting in the loss of micturition control,which manifests as detrusor sphincter dyssynergia and insufficient micturition.Studies have shown that serotonergic axons play important roles in the control of the descending urination tract.In this study,mouse models of moderate spinal cord contusions were established.The serotonin agonists quipazine(0.2 mg/kg),8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin(8-OH-DAPT,0.1 mg/kg),buspirone(1 mg/kg),sumatriptan(1 mg/kg),and rizatriptan(50 mg/kg),the serotonin reuptake inhibitors fluoxetine(20 mg/kg)and duloxetine(1 mg/kg),and the dopamine receptor agonist SKF-82197(0.1 mg/kg)were intraperitoneally administered to the model mice 35 days post-injury in an acute manner.The voided stain on paper method and urodynamics revealed that fluoxetine reduced the amount of residual urine in the bladder and decreased bladder and external urethral sphincter pressure in a mouse model of moderate spinal cord injury.However,fluoxetine did not improve the micturition function in a mouse model of severe spinal cord injury.In contrast,the other serotonergic drugs had no effects on the micturition functions of spinal cord injury model mice.This study was ethically approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine(approval No.2020DW-20-02)on September 11,2020.

Study on Temperature Distribution of Specimens Tested on the Gleeble 3800 at Hot Forming Conditions

Taking Ti-6Al-4V specimens into consideration, the coupled thermal-electrical finite element model has been developed in Abaqus/Explicit to simulate the heating process in Gleeble 3800 and to study the temperature history and distribution in the specimen. In order to verify the finite element(FE)results, thermal tests are carried out on Gleeble 3800 for a Ti-6Al-4V specimen with a slot to in the centre of the specimen. The effects of the specimen size, heating rate,and air convection on the temperature distribution over the specimen have been investigated. The conclusions can be drawn as: the temperature gradient of the specimen decreases as the specimen size, heating rate,and vacuuming decrease.