To Explore the Pathogenesis of Vascular Lesion of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Based on the PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway

Background. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has become a chronic disease, serious harm to human health. Complications of the blood pipe are the main cause of disability and death in diabetic patients, including vascular lesions that directly affects the prognosis of patients with diabetes and survival. This study was to determine the influence of high glucose and related mechanism of vascular lesion of type 2 diabetes mellitus pathogenesis. Methods. In vivo aorta abdominalis of GK rats was observed with blood pressure, heart rate, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), Masson, and Verhoeff staining. In vitro cells were cultured with 30 mM glucose for 24 h. RT-QPCR was used to detect the mRNA expression of endothelial markers PTEN, PI3K, Akt, and VEGF. Immunofluorescence staining was used to detect the expression of PTEN, PI3K, Akt, and VEGF. PI3K and Akt phosphorylation levels were detected by Western blot analysis. Results. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean blood pressure in the GK control group were higher compared with the Wistar control group and no difference compared with the GK experimental model group. Fluorescence intensity of VEGF, Akt, and PI3K in the high-sugar stimulus group was stronger than the control group; PTEN in the high-sugar stimulus group was weakening than the control group. VEGF, Akt, and PI3K mRNA in the high-sugar stimulus group were higher than the control group; protein expressions of VEGF, Akt, and PI3K in the high-sugar stimulus group were higher than the control group. PTEN mRNA in the high-sugar stimulus group was lower than the control group. Protein expression of PTEN in the high-sugar stimulus group was lower than the control group. Conclusions. Angiogenesis is an important pathogenesis of T2DM vascular disease, and PTEN plays a negative regulatory role in the development of new blood vessels and can inhibit the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

Drawing power of virtual crowds

In 1969, social psychologist Milgram and his colleagues conducted an experiment on a busy city street where passers-by witnessed a set of actors spontaneously looking up towards a building. The experiment showed that the crowd's propensity to mimic the actor's gaze increased with the number of actors that looked up. This form of behavioural contagion is found in many social organisms and is central to how information travels through large groups. With the advancement of virtual reality and its continued application towards understanding human response to crowd behaviour, it remains to be verified if behavioural contagion occurs in walkable virtual environments, and how it compares with results from real-world experiments. In this study, we adapt Milgram's experiment for virtual environments and use it to reproduce behavioural contagion. Specifically, we construct a replica of an indoor location and combine two established pedestrian motion models to create an interactive crowd of 60 virtual characters that walk through the indoor location. The stimulus group comprised a subset of the characters who look up at a random time as the participants explore the virtual environment. Our results show that the probability of looking up by a participant is dependent on the size of the stimulus group saturating to near certainty when three or more characters look up. The role of stimulus size was also evident when participant actions were compared with survey responses which showed that more participants selected to not look up even though they saw characters redirect their gaze upwards when the size of the stimulus group was small. Participants also spent more time looking up and exhibited frequent head turns with a larger stimulus group. Results from this study provide evidence that behavioural contagion can be triggered in the virtual environment, and can be used to build and test complex hypotheses for understanding human behaviour in a variety of crowd scenarios.

Tactile Stimuli Increase Effects of Modality Compatibility in Task Switching

Modality compatibility refers to the similarity of stimulus modality and modality of response-related sensory consequences. Previous dual-task studies found increased switch costs for modality incompatible tasks (auditory-manual/visual-vocal) compared to modality compatible tasks (auditory-vocal/visual-manual). The present task-switching study further examined modality compatibility and investigated vibrotactile stimulation as a novel alternative to visual stimulation. Interestingly, a stronger modality compatibility effect on switch costs was revealed for the group with tactile-auditory stimulation compared to the visual-auditory stimulation group. We suggest that the modality compatibility effect is based on crosstalk of central processing codes due to ideomotor “backward” linkages between the anticipated response effects and the stimuli indicating this response. This crosstalk is increased in the tactile-auditory stimulus group compared to the visual-auditory stimulus group due to a higher degree of ideomotor-compatibility in the tactile-manual tasks. Since crosstalk arises between tasks, performance is only affected in task switching and not in single tasks.

Effects of Acupuncture Applied to Sanyinjiao with Different Stimuli on Uterine Contraction and Microcirculation in Rats with Dysmenorrhea of Cold Coagulation Syndrome

In this study, we try to evaluate the effects of acupuncture stimulation with different amounts at Sanyinjiao (SP6) on uterine contraction and uterus microcirculation in rats with dysmenorrhea of cold coagulation syndrome and to explore whether there is direct relativity between “De qi” and needle stimulus intensity. Diestrus female rats were randomly divided into 4 groups, including saline control group, model control group, “A” stimulus group (with strong stimulus), and “B” stimulus group (with weak stimulus). We found that dysmenorrhea rats of the cold coagulation syndrome present a high intensity in uterine tension and high contraction of microvascular diameter. Acupuncture applied with two different stimuli could relieve the symptoms, but, compared with “B” stimulus, “A” stimulus leads to better outcomes on reducing uterine contraction and increasing diameter of uterine microvascular; moreover, hand manipulation during needling mediates the curative effect on the microvascular diameter. Our finding indicates that using thick needles and deep insertion with hand manipulation are more effective and achieve desired level of “De qi” in dysmenorrhea rats.

A Study of Physiological Response during Emotional Imaging

We inspected Lang's bio-informational theory and furthered the research. 24 subjects were divided into two groups, a stimulus group (S-group) and a response group (R-group) for scripts with Joy, Anger, and Neutral emotions. In the training session, the S-group was instructed to image the scripts as vividly as possible, while the R-group was instructed to concentrate on physiological and physical responses in addition to what was asked of the S-group. On the test day, subjects imaged two Neutral scripts, two standard emotional scripts, and two personally relevant emotional scripts. Indices were physiological response (blood pressure) and subjects' ratings for imaging. We confirmed that emotional scripts increased physiological responses more than nonemotional scripts did. The results suggested that the differences in the scripts' content affected blood pressure and subjects' ratings of imaging.

The Effect of Kinesthetic Stimulation on Acquisition and Retention of a Gross Motor Skill

The role of kinesthetic stimulation in motor learning and performance of a gross motor task was investigated. Forty healthy female adult volunteers, ages 20 to 30 years old, were required to learn a gross motor task involving the kicking of a ball. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two training groups, a kinesthetic stimulus group or a non-kinesthetic stimulus group. Results indicated that kinesthetic stimulation during practice and retention phases seemed to enhance task acquisition. Kinesthetic stimulation may have provided important feedback information for the learners that might have enabled them to make the necessary adjustments during performance. In addition, it appears that the stimulation affected the motor memory processes and left a more stable representation of the movement pattern. The use of continuous pressure as a means of kinesthetic stimulation for the facilitation of motor skill acquisition is recommended, although further research is required in order to generalize these findings to the clinic.

Auditory Localization of Infants as a Function of Reinforcement Conditions

The influence of four reinforcement conditions on the auditory localization behavior of normal infants was studied. Forty-eight infants 12 to 18 months of age were assigned to one of four groups of 12 subjects each. All received 30 presentations of complex noise at suprathreshold level. After each response to the stimulus, Group 1 received no reinforcement, Group 2 received social reinforcement, Group 3 received “simple” visual reinforcement (a blinking light) , and Group 4 received “complex” visual reinforcement (an animated toy animal). The two visual reinforcement conditions produced the most localization responses, followed in order by the social reinforcement and no reinforcement conditions. These results indicate that auditory localization behavior of infants is influenced by reinforcement and that the extent of this effect is related to the type of reinforcement employed.

Effects of Person-Group and Intragroup Attitude Similarity on Perceived Group Attractiveness and Cohesiveness: II

The generalizability of the Byrne-Nelson attraction function to the evaluation of group attractiveness and group cohesiveness was investigated by varying both the proportion of person-group or intergroup attitude similarity (.25, .50, or .75) and the proportion of within-group or intragroup attitude similarity (.33, .50, or .83) and having the experimental S evaluate the stimulus group for its attractiveness and its probable level of cohesive functioning. The mythical 3-person stimulus group which each S evaluated was presented as being comprised of the likely participants in a discussion group being considered for another psychological experiment. Group attractiveness was measured by scales for liking and desire to work with the group, and group cohesiveness was assessed with scales asking for evaluations of the group's probable level of productivity, efficiency, feelings of belongingness, and morale. Evaluation of group attractiveness is a positive function of person-group attitude similarity or the similarity of the group's members to S ( p < .001), whereas the evaluation of group cohesiveness is a positive function of similarity of intragroup attitude or the similarity of the group's members to one another independent of their similarity to the nonmember-evaluator ( p < .001).

Cross Modal Generalization in Conditioned Galvanic Skin Response Audiometry

Four groups of ten university students with normal hearing were conditioned using GSR audiometry. Group 1 was conditioned to a 40 dB 250 Hz air-conducted auditory stimulus followed by 25 extinction trials of the same stimulus. Group 2 was conditioned to the same air-conducted auditory stimulus followed by 25 extinction trials of a 40 dB 250 Hz vibrotactual stimulus generated by a bone transducer. Group 3 was conditioned to the vibrotactual stimulus followed by 25 extinction trials of the same auditory stimulus. Group 4 was conditioned to the vibrotactual stimulus followed by 25 extinction trials of the same vibrotactual stimulus. Conditioning across sensory modes, as measured by the number of galvanic skin responses during the extinction trials, occurred at a level almost as high as conditioning and extinction in the same sensory mode.