Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Homozygosity in the APOE 3 Polymorphism Is Associated With Less Depression and Higher Serum Low-Density Lipoprotein in Chinese Elderly Schizophrenics

Background: Depressive symptoms are common comorbidities in schizophrenia. However, the effect of APOE E3 on depressive symptoms has never been investigated in an aging Chinese population with schizophrenia. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the effects of APOE E3 on blood lipid metabolism and depressive symptoms in elderly schizophrenics in China. Methods: Three Hundred and one elderly schizophrenics (161 males, age ranges from 60 to 92 years, with an average age of 67.31 ± 6.667) were included in the study. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). APOE gene polymorphism was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We assessed the correlations of GDS and serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL) with APOE genotypes. Results: The concentration of LDL in the Homozygous APOE E3 group was significantly higher than that in the non-homozygous APOE E3 group, while the scores of GDS of the Homozygous APOE E3 group were lower than that in the non-homozygous APOE E3 group. Using partial correlation analysis and controlling age, gender, duration of disease, and hyperlipidemia, we found that the scores of GDS were significantly correlated with LDL (r = −0.194, p = 0.016). Conclusions: APOE E3 is associated with less depressive symptoms and higher serum LDL in Chinese elderly patients with schizophrenia, and there is a negative correlation between depressive symptoms and LDL.
Neural dynamics of semantic categorization in semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia

Awake humans constantly extract conceptual information from a flow of perceptual inputs. Category membership (e.g., is it an animate or inanimate thing? ) is a critical semantic feature used to determine the appropriate response to a stimulus. Semantic representations are thought to be processed along a posterior-to-anterior gradient reflecting a shift from perceptual (e.g., it has eight legs) to conceptual (e.g., venomous spiders are rare) information. One critical region is the anterior temporal lobe (ATL): patients with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), a clinical syndrome associated with ATL neurodegeneration, manifest a deep loss of semantic knowledge. Here, we test the hypothesis that svPPA patients, in the absence of an intact ATL, perform semantic tasks by over-recruiting areas implicated in perceptual processing. We acquired MEG recordings of 18 svPPA patients and 18 healthy controls during a semantic categorization task. While behavioral performance did not differ, svPPA patients showed greater activation over bilateral occipital cortices and superior temporal gyrus, and inconsistent engagement of frontal regions. These findings indicate a pervasive reorganization of brain networks in response to ATL neurodegeneration: the loss of this critical hub leads to a dysregulated (semantic) control system, and defective semantic representations are compensated via enhanced perceptual processing.
Panic During COVID-19 Pandemic! A Qualitative Investigation Into the Psychosocial Experiences of a Sample of Indian People

The outbreak of COVID-19 has spread to the entire world and is severely affecting social psychology. We conducted semi-structured interviews on 59 subjects from India to investigate the impact of information, misinfodemics (spread of wrong information), and isolation on their psychology. We perform qualitative analysis on the data. Our findings reveal that flow of information leads to anxiety, caution, and knowledge; while misinfodemics cause panic, distrust, and confusion; and isolation creates cognitive dissonance (the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes) and adaptability among masses. The encouraging part of our findings is that, as of now, the situation is far from the state of depression. Practically, our research calls upon the government to support the masses in fighting through the crisis by focusing on pointed psychological counseling. We contribute theoretically to the body of knowledge in the field of social psychology, which is studying the psychological interventions to avoid panic amid pandemic. Future researchers in the area would do well by detailing the psychological interventions required to contain the negative impacts of the pandemic on social psychology.
The Association Between Vulnerable/Grandiose Narcissism and Emotion Regulation

Narcissism has been widely discussed in the context of career success and leadership. Besides several adaptive traits, narcissism has been characterized by difficulties in emotion regulation. However, despite its essential role in mental health, there is little research on emotion regulation processes in narcissism. Specifically, the investigation of not only the habitual use of specific regulation strategies but also the actual ability to regulate is needed due to diverging implications for treatment approaches. Thereby it is important to differentiate between vulnerable and grandiose narcissism as these two phenotypes might be related differently to regulation deficits. The aim of this study was to examine the association between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism and emotion regulation in healthy individuals (30f/30m) focusing on the strategy reappraisal. Additionally, potential sex effects have been explored. Narcissism was assessed using self-report measures and emotion regulation with self-report questionnaires as well as an experimental regulation task. During this task, participants were presented with pictures of sad/happy faces with the instruction to indicate their subjective emotions via button press. Depending on the condition, participants either indicated their natural response or applied cognitive control strategies to regulate their own subjective emotions. Results indicate no relationship between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism and emotion regulation ability, irrespective of sex. Individuals high on vulnerable narcissism use the maladaptive regulation strategy suppression more frequently than individuals with low expressions. Individuals high on grandiose narcissism, in contrast, seem to avoid the suppression of positive emotions and do not express negative emotions in an uncontrolled manner. Interestingly, while grandiose narcissism was not associated with depressive symptoms, vulnerable narcissism correlated positively with depressive symptoms and anhedonia. Findings of this study underline the need to differentiate between grandiose and vulnerable manifestations of narcissism. Against our expectation, narcissism was not related to emotion regulation performance. In line with previous research, grandiose narcissism seems less harmful for mental health, while vulnerable narcissism is associated with psychological problems and the use of rather maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, i.e., suppression. Future research should investigate the relationship between pathological narcissism and emotion regulation also by extending the scope to other relevant regulation strategies.
Alteration of gut microbiota with rifampicin does not impair maternal care in the European earwig

The microbes residing within the gut of an animal host often maximise their own fitness by modifying their host’s physiological, reproductive, and behavioural functions. Whereas recent studies suggest that they may also shape host sociality and therefore have critical effects on animal social evolution, the impact of the gut microbiota on maternal care remains unexplored. This is surprising, as this social behaviour is widespread among animals, often determines the fitness of both juveniles and parents, and is essential in the evolution of complex animal societies. Here, we address this gap in knowledge by testing whether life-long alterations of the gut microbiota with rifampicin - a broad-spectrum antibiotic - impair the expression of pre- and post-hatching maternal care in the European earwig, an insect exhibiting extensive forms of maternal care towards eggs and juveniles. Our results first confirm that rifampicin altered the mothers’ gut microbial communities and revealed that the composition of the gut microbiota differs before and after egg care. Contrary to our predictions, however, the rifampicin-induced alterations of the gut microbiota did not modify the expression of pre- or post-hatching care. Independent of maternal care, rifampicin increased the females’ feces production and resulted in lighter eggs and juveniles. By contrast, rifampicin altered none of the other 23 physiological, reproductive and longevity traits measured over the females’ lifetime. Overall, these findings reveal that altering the gut microbiota does not necessarily affect host sociality. More generally, our results emphasize that not all animals have evolved a co-dependence with their microbiota.
Diagnostic Performance of Quantitative and Qualitative Elastography for Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis in Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Studies have shown inconsistent results regarding the diagnostic performance of ultrasound elastography for axillary lymph node metastasis (ALNM) in breast cancer. This meta-analysis aimed to estimate the diagnostic performance of ultrasound elastography (divided into quantitative and qualitative elastography) for ALNM in patients with breast cancer. Methods: The PubMed and Embase databases were searched for eligible studies exploring the diagnostic performance of ultrasound elastography for ALNM in patients with breast cancer. The included studies were divided into quantitative and qualitative elastography groups to perform separate meta-analyses. The diagnostic performance was investigated with pooled sensitivity and specificity and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) using a bivariate mixed-effects regression model. A summary receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed, and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated. Results: Seven and 11 studies were included in the quantitative and qualitative elastography meta-analyses, respectively. The pooled sensitivity and specificity, DOR, and AUC with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals were 0.82 (0.75, 0.87), 0.88 (0.78, 0.93), 33 (13, 83), and 0.89 (0.86, 0.91), respectively, for quantitative elastography and 0.81 (0.69, 0.89), 0.92 (0.79, 0.97), 46 (12, 181), and 0.92 (0.89, 0.94), respectively, for qualitative elastography. No significant publication bias existed. Fagan plots demonstrated good clinical utility. However, substantial heterogeneity existed among studies. Study design, measurement, and reference standard served as potential sources of heterogeneity for quantitative studies, which were measurement and reference standard for qualitative studies. Conclusions: Both quantitative and qualitative elastography seem to be feasible, non-invasive diagnostic tools for ALNM in breast cancer. Nevertheless, the results must be interpreted carefully, paying attention to heterogeneity issues, especially for quantitative elastography studies.
Developmental Effects of Oxytocin Neurons on Social Affiliation and Processing of Social Information

Hormones regulate behavior either through activational effects that facilitate the acute expression of specific behaviors or through organizational effects that shape the development of the nervous system thereby altering adult behavior. Much research has implicated the neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) in acute modulation of various aspects of social behaviors across vertebrate species, and OXT signaling is associated with the developmental social deficits observed in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs); however, little is known about the role of OXT in the neurodevelopment of the social brain. We show that perturbation of OXT neurons during early zebrafish development led to a loss of dopaminergic neurons, associated with visual processing and reward, and blunted the neuronal response to social stimuli in the adult brain. Ultimately, adult fish whose OXT neurons were ablated in early life, displayed altered functional connectivity within social decision-making brain nuclei both in naive state and in response to social stimulus and became less social. We propose that OXT neurons have an organizational role, namely, to shape forebrain neuroarchitecture during development and to acquire an affiliative response toward conspecifics. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Social behavior is developed over the lifetime of an organism and the neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) modulates social behaviors across vertebrate species, and is associated with neuro-developmental social deficits such as autism. However, whether OXT plays a role in the developmental maturation of neural systems that are necessary for social behavior remains poorly explored. We show that proper behavioral and neural response to social stimuli depends on a developmental process orchestrated by OXT neurons. Animals whose OXT system is ablated in early life show blunted neuronal and behavioral responses to social stimuli as well as wide ranging disruptions in the functional connectivity of the social brain. We provide a window into the mechanisms underlying OXT-dependent developmental processes that implement adult sociality.
Regulation of GABAA and 5-HT Receptors Involved in Anxiolytic Mechanisms of Jujube Seed: A System Biology Study Assisted by UPLC-Q-TOF/MS and RT-qPCR Method

The increase of the prevalence of anxiety greatly impacts the quality of life in China and globally. As the most popular traditional Chinese medicinal ingredient for nourishing health and tranquilizing mind, Jujube seed (Ziziphus jujuba Mill., Rhamnaceae) (SZJ) has been proved to exert anxiolytic effects in previous reports. In this study, a system biology method assisted by UPLC-Q-TOF/MS and RT-qPCR was developed to systematically demonstrate the anxiolytic mechanisms of SZJ. A total of 35 phytochemicals were identified from SZJ extract (Ziziphus jujuba Mill. var. spinosa [Bunge] Hu ex H.F. Chow), which interact with 71 anxiolytic targets. Protein-protein interaction, genes cluster, Gene Ontology, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways analysis were subsequently conducted, and results demonstrated that regulation of serotonergic and GABAergic synapse pathways were dominantly involved in the anxiolytic mechanisms of SZJ extract. The effects of SZJ extract on mRNA expressions of multiple GABAA (gamma-aminobutyric acid type A) and 5-HT (serotonin) receptors subtypes were further validated in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells using RT-qPCR. Results showed that SZJ extract (250 μg/mL) significantly up-regulated the mRNA level of GABRA1 and GABRA3 as well as HTR1A, HTR2A, and HTR2B in non-H2O2 treated SH-SY5Y cells. However, it exerted an inhibitive effect on the overexpressed mRNA of GABRA1, GABRA2, HTR1A, and HTR2A in H2O2 treated SH-SY5Y cells. Taken together, our findings suggest that anxiolytic mechanisms of SZJ mostly involve the regulation of GABAergic and serotonergic synapse pathways, especially a two-way modulation of GABRA1, HTR1A, and HTR2A. Our current results provide potential direction for future investigation of SZJ as an anxiolytic agent.
Exercise-Induced Improvements in Postprandial Glucose Response Are Blunted by Pre-Exercise Hyperglycemia: A Randomized Crossover Trial in Healthy Individuals

Background Exercise improves glycemic control but the magnitude, and in some cases, the direction of this effect is variable. Ambient hyperglycemia has been implicated in this exercise response heterogeneity. The current study investigated whether pre-exercise hyperglycemia directly impacts the effect of exercise on glycemic control. Methods Twelve healthy normal glucose-tolerant males completed four trials in a randomized, crossover design. Each trial consisted of 24-h pre-intervention monitoring, a 7-h intervention, and 24-h post-intervention monitoring. Glycemic control was measured throughout the study by continuous glucose monitoring. The four interventions were no exercise (CON) or 45 min of cycling exercise (70%HRmax) preceded by 3.5 h of either normoglycemia (NG-Ex), steady-state hyperglycemia induced by constant glucose infusion (HG-Ex) or fluctuating glycemia induced by repeated glucose bolus infusions (FG-Ex). Results Physical activity and diet were similar between trials, and energy expenditure during exercise was matched between exercise trials (all P > 0.05). Mean glucose during the 3.5 h ± infusion period was higher in HG-Ex (mean ± SEM; 7.2 ± 0.4 mmol/L) and FG-Ex (7.3 ± 0.3 mmol/L) compared to CON (4.8 ± 0.2 mmol/L) and NG-Ex (5.0 ± 0.2 mmol/L) trials (P < 0.01). Glycemic variability was greatest in FG-Ex (P < 0.01). Following the interventions, the postprandial glucose response (iAUC) was reduced by exercise in NG-Ex compared to CON (321.1 ± 38.6 vs. 445.5 ± 49.7 mmol/L.8h, P < 0.05, d=0.81). This benefit was blunted when exercise was preceded by steady-state (HG-Ex, 425.3 ± 45.7 mmol/L.8h) and fluctuating (FG-Ex, 465.5 ± 39.3 mmol/L.8h) hyperglycemia (both P > 0.05 vs. CON). Conclusion Pre-exercise hyperglycemia blunted the glucoregulatory benefits of acute exercise upon postprandial glucose response, suggesting that exposure to hyperglycemia contributes to exercise response heterogeneity. Clinical Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT03284216.
A Novel Clinical-Radiomics Model Pre-operatively Predicted the Stone-Free Rate of Flexible Ureteroscopy Strategy in Kidney Stone Patients

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to develop and validate a novel clinical–radiomics nomogram model for pre-operatively predicting the stone-free rate of flexible ureteroscopy (fURS) in kidney stone patients. Patients and Methods: Altogether, 2,129 fURS cases with kidney stones were retrospectively analyzed, and 264 patients with a solitary kidney stone were included in a further study. For lower calyx calculi, a radiomics model was generated in a primary cohort of 99 patients who underwent non-contrast-enhanced computed tomography (NCCT). Radiomics feature selection and signature building were conducted by using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to build a model incorporating radiomics and potential clinical factors. Model performance was evaluated by its discrimination, calibration, and clinical utility. The model was internally validated in 43 patients. Results: The overall success rate of fURS was 72%, while the stone-free rate (SFR) for lower calyx calculi and non-lower calyx calculi was 56.3 and 90.16%, respectively. On multivariate logistic regression analysis of the primary cohort, independent predictors for SFR were radiomics signature, stone volume, operator experience, and hydronephrosis level, which were all selected into the nomogram. The area under the curve (AUC) of clinical–radiomics model was 0.949 and 0.947 in the primary and validation cohorts, respectively. Moreover, the calibration curve showed a satisfactory predictive accuracy, and the decision curve analysis indicated that the nomogram has superior clinical application value. Conclusion: In this novel clinical–radiomics model, the radiomics scores, stone volume, hydronephrosis level, and operator experience were crucial for the flexible ureteroscopy strategy.
Steroid production and LH receptor concentrations of ovarian follicles and corpora lutea and associated rates of ova wastage in ewes given high and low levels of food intake before and after mating

Two groups of eives were fed to provide 1·5 × (high, H; no. = 13) or 0·5 × (low, L; no. = 12) energy requirements for maintenance of live weight from 12 days before a synchronized mating in November until slaughter at 14 days after mating and the effects on embryo survival and associated patterns of gonadotropin secretion, and ovarian follicle and corpus luteum function were investigated. Proportionately, there were more pregnant ewes in the H group than the L group (0·62 v. 0·08; %2 = 7·67; P 500 pg oestradiol per h; H: 0·29; L: 0·28; y) = 0·01; P > 0·05) and secretion (pg/h) in vitro of oestradiol (H, 294; L, 386; s.e.d. = 146) (pg/h) and testosterone (H: 636; L: 508; s.e.d. = 293) by these follicles were similar for both treatments. There were no treatment differences in LH receptor concentrations (pg hormone bound per mg protein) in granulosa (H: 69·02; L: 67·76; s.e.d. = 0·20) and thecal (H: 46-88; L: 50·82; s.e.d. = 0·19) tissues. However, there was a higher concentration of receptors in the thecal tissue of oestrogenic follicles ofL than H ewes (167 v. 62; s.e. d. = 18; P
The Impact of BKI-1294 Therapy in Mice Infected With the Apicomplexan Parasite Neospora caninum and Re-infected During Pregnancy

Exposure of Neospora caninum tachyzoites to BKI-1294 in vitro results in the formation of long-lived multinucleated complexes (MNCs). However, in vivo treatment of BALB/c mice with BKI-1294 shortly after N. caninum infection during pregnancy was safe and profoundly reduced pup mortality and vertical transmission. We hypothesized that the formation of MNCs could trigger immune responses that contribute to BKI efficacy in vivo. In this study, mice were first vaccinated with a sublethal dose of N. caninum tachyzoites and were treated with BKI-1294. We then investigated the effects of these treatments after mating and re-infection during pregnancy. Effects on fertility, pup survival, vertical transmission, and parasite load in dams were evaluated. Cytokines in sera or splenocyte culture supernatants were assessed by either ELISA or the Luminex™ 200 system, and humoral immune responses against tachyzoite and MNC antigens were compared by ELISA, Western blotting and immunoproteomics. Our results showed that BKI-1294 treatment of live-vaccinated mice reduced the cerebral parasite load in the dams, but resulted in higher neonatal pup mortality and vertical transmission. In live-vaccinated mice, cytokine levels, most notably IFN-y, IL-10, and IL-12, were consistently lower in BKI-1294 treated animals compared to non-treated mice. In addition, comparative Western blotting identified two protein bands in MNC extracts that were only recognized by sera of live-vaccinated mice treated with BKI-1294, and were not found in tachyzoite extracts. We conclude that treatment of live-vaccinated mice with BKI-1294 influenced the cellular and humoral immune responses against infection, affected the safety of the live-vaccine, and decreased protection against re-infection and vertical transmission during pregnancy.