Non-linear Functional Brain Co-activations in Short-Term Memory Distortion Tasks

Recent works shed light on the neural correlates of true and false recognition and the influence of time of day on cognitive performance. The current study aimed to investigate the modulation of the false memory formation by the time of day using a non-linear correlation analysis originally designed for fMRI resting-state data. Fifty-four young and healthy participants (32 females, mean age: 24.17 ± 3.56 y.o.) performed in MR scanner the modified Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm in short-term memory during one session in the morning and another in the evening. Subjects’ responses were modeled with a general linear model, which includes as a predictor the non-linear correlations of regional BOLD activity with the stimuli, separately for encoding and retrieval phases. The results show the dependence of the non-linear correlations measures with the time of day and the type of the probe. In addition, the results indicate differences in the correlations measures with hippocampal regions between positive and lure probes. Besides confirming previous results on the influence of time-of-day on cognitive performance, the study demonstrates the effectiveness of the non-linear correlation analysis method for the characterization of fMRI task paradigms.

498 Oxidative stress and left ventricular performance in patients according to different glycometabolic phenotypes

Recent studies demonstrated that in normoglucose-tolerant subjects (NGT), 1-h post load plasma glucose value ≥155 mg/dL, during OGTT, identifies a worse cardio-metabolic risk profile with increased risk for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). T2DM patients present increased oxidative stress, due to high blood glucose levels, which plays a central role in the development of CV events. The aim of our study was to evaluate the correlation between oxidative stress and subclinical myocardial damage, assessed with speckle tracking echocardiography, in NGT patients with 1-h post load ≥155 mg/dL vs. NGT < 155 subjects, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and T2DM patients. We enrolled 100 Caucasian patients (61 M, 39 W, mean age 61.4 ± 10.7) afferent to CATAMERI study. Main exclusion criteria were CV complications, history of malignant or chronic respiratory disease, alcohol, drug influencing glucose metabolism or smoking abuse. All subjects underwent clinical and laboratory evaluation, OGTT and HOMA-IR. The serum values of the markers of oxidative stress (8-isoprostane and NOX-2) were assessed with ELISA sandwich. Statistical analysis was performed with ANOVA test, linear correlation analysis and stepwise multivariate linear regression model. According to OGTT results, subjects were divided into 4 groups: NGT < 155 (n = 30), NGT ≥ 155 (n = 24), IGT (n = 28), T2DM (n = 18). Serum levels of 8-isoprostane and NOX-2 were significantly increased (P < 0.0001) in NGT ≥ 155 compared to NGT < 155 group, but similar with IGT, indicating an increase in oxidative stress with the worsening of the metabolic status. The left global systolic function, evaluated as myocardial deformation and global longitudinal strain (GLS), appeared progressively lower proceeding from the NGT < 155 group to the T2DM group (P < 0.0001). Moreover, for similar values of ejection fraction (EF), NGT ≥ 155 subjects presented reduced GLS compared to NGT < 155 (P = 0.001), but similar to IGT patients. The linear correlation analysis showed that endo/epi ratio was significantly and inversely correlated with 1 h post load glycaemia (r = −0.632, P < 0.0001), NOX-2 (r = −0.638, P < 0.0001), 8-isoprostane (r = −0.508, P < 0.0001); GLS was inversely correlated with 1 h post load glycaemia (r = −0.734, P < 0.0001) and directly and significantly correlated with 8-isoprostane (r = 0.564, P < 0.0001), NOX-2 (r = 0.625, P < 0.0001). From stepwise multivariate linear regression model, NOX-2 resulted the major predictor of endo/epi ratio, justifying 40.7% of its variation. 1-h post load glycaemia was the second predictor of endo/epi ratio justifying another 9.2% of its variation. Similarly 1-h post load glycaemia was the strongest predictor of the GLS, explaining 53.9% of its variation. Our study demonstrated that NGT ≥ 155 subjects present functional alterations of myocardial contractile fibres, compared to NGT < 155 subjects, but similar to IGT, and these alterations are correlated with oxidative stress. Moreover, GLS is able to identify early alterations in the contractility of subendocardial longitudinal fibres long before the alteration of EF. This data have a central role in ongoing research on the association between hyperglycaemia at 1-h post load and CV risk.

Effect of serum bisphenol A and low T3 on short-term prognosis of young patients with intracerebral hemorrhage

BackgroundBisphenol A (BPA) is widely present in daily necessities, and its exposure is almost everywhere. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between serum BPA levels, biomarkers and recent mortality in young patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (YICH) and low T3 .MethodsUsing a multi-center longitudinal prospective study, the research team recruited 600 YICH patients and divided into two subgroups according to their thyroid function, of which 320 (53.3%) were in the LT3, Sub-clinical hypothyroidism (SCH) was 280 (46.6%) and control group (n = 600).All patients received serum BPA, and biomarker blood draws.ResultsCalculating the cumulative quantification of plastic bag products, BPA increased by 0.204 standard deviation unit per log unit (P<0.003). Serum BPA, thrombin and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-9) {BPA (0.91±0.14) vs (0.765±0.13) vs. (0.535±0.11) pg/ml, thrombin (1.35±0.18) vs (0.66±) 0.15) vs (0.66 ±0.15) ng/ml, MMP-9 (104±10 vs (53±8.1) vs (53±) 8.1) pg/ml, both P<0.01}. Linear correlation analysis showed that serum BPA was positively correlated with miR-388-3p and 24hDBPCV, and negatively correlated with LT3 and miR-451. Multiple linear regression showed that BPA affected the increase of nDBP Percentage of independent risk factors (β = 0.286), P <0.01. Mortality rate showed 2 ,15 and 30 days of patients in the LT3 and the SCH of 4.7%vs 2.5%,6.25% vs 3.75%,4.68%vs 2.5%, P<0.01.ConclusionHigh BPA exposure strongly predicts the risk of ICH in young patients. The activation of NF-κB signaling pathway, secondary thyroid function, ambulatory blood pressure scores, and changes in messenger ribonucleic acid construct an inflammatory response system. There are also significant differences in recent mortality between the LT3 group and the SCH group.Trial registrationThe trial is registered at clinical .gov (www.medresman.Chi CTR1900023626)

Non-linear functional brain co-activations in short-term memory distortion tasks

Recent works shed light on the neural correlates of true and false recognition and the influence of time of day on cognitive performance. The current study aimed to investigate the modulation of the false memory formation by the time of day using a non-linear correlation analysis originally designed for fMRI resting-state data. Fifty-four young and healthy participants (32 females, mean age: 24.17 y.o., SD: 3.56 y.o.) performed in MR scanner the modified Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm in short-term memory during one session in the morning and another in the evening. Subjects’ responses were modeled with a general linear model, which includes as a predictor the non-linear correlations of regional BOLD activity with the stimuli, separately for encoding and retrieval phases. The results show the dependence of the non-linear correlations measures with the time of day and the type of the probe. In addition, the results indicate differences in the correlations measures with hippocampal regions between positive and lure probes. Besides confirming previous results on the influence of time-of-day on cognitive performance, the study demonstrates the effectiveness of the non-linear correlation analysis method for the characterization of fMRI task paradigms.

Comprehensive Analysis of the Systemic Transcriptomic Alternations and Inflammatory Response during the Occurrence and Progress of COVID-19

The pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed huge threats to healthcare systems and the global economy. However, the host response towards COVID-19 on the molecular and cellular levels still lacks full understanding and effective therapies are in urgent need. Here, we integrate three datasets, GSE152641, GSE161777, and GSE157103. Compared to healthy people, 314 differentially expressed genes were identified, which were mostly involved in neutrophil degranulation and cell division. The protein-protein network was established and two significant subsets were filtered by MCODE: ssGSEA and CIBERSORT, which comprehensively revealed the alternation of immune cell abundance. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) as well as GO and KEGG analyses unveiled the role of neutrophils and T cells during the progress of the disease. Based on the hospital-free days after 45 days of follow-up and statistical methods such as nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF), submap, and linear correlation analysis, 31 genes were regarded as the signature of the peripheral blood of COVID-19. Various immune cells were identified to be related to the prognosis of the patients. Drugs were predicted for the genes in the signature by DGIdb. Overall, our study comprehensively revealed the relationship between the inflammatory response and the disease course, which provided strategies for the treatment of COVID-19.

Assessment of spatio-temporal variability of rainfall and mean air temperature over Ardabil province, Iran

Precipitation and temperature are the most important climate parameters, which vary both spatially and temporally. In the present study, rainfall data of 11 synoptic stations and 40 rain gauge stations and mean air temperature data of 11 synoptic stations of Ardabil province for the period 2009–2019 collected from the Meteorological Organization of Ardabil province, were considered for investigation. The descriptive statistics of rainfall and temperature such as mean, median, coefficient of variation, skewness and kurtosis were analyzed for monthly scale data. A higher coefficient of variation signified a greater degree of variation in precipitation and temperature data across different months. To evaluate the temporal stability over several months, Pearson linear correlation analysis at a significance level of 5% was performed for each variable. Kriging geostatistical estimator and GIS interface (ArcMap 10.4.1) were used for spatial interpolation with the aid of root mean square and SRMS standards. The results revealed that the spatial variation of temperature was greater than that of precipitation.

Water quality of the Atibaia river in the city of Paulínia/SP: evaluation of the Electrical Conductivity and Chloride variables

The present study aimed to evaluate the characteristics that most influenced the water quality variability of the Atibaia river in the city of Paulínia/SP, the coordinates of the water collection point are given by 22º44'23”(S) and 47º07 ' 40 ”(W), in the dry and rainy seasons, from 2006 to 2016. The data used in this study come from the monitoring of parameters carried out in the spring by a research team, accompanied by periodic collections of surface water samples and analyzes laboratory tests. The parameters addressed included: precipitation, temperature, Hydrogenionic potential (pH), turbidity, thermotolerant coliforms (Escherichia coli (E. coli)), dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (Ntotal), total phosphorus (Ptotal), total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC) and chlorides (Cl-). Water quality was assessed using linear correlation analysis, using the Pearson Correlation coefficient (r), and Multivariate Analysis, using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The presence of EC, Cl- and COD in both periods indicates quality characteristics related to the mineralization of organic compounds present in the water and the eutrophication process.

The Effect of Phosphorus Metabolism on the Motion of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Volutin Granules

It is known that moving volutin granules (“dancing bodies”), mechanism of which occurrence remains poorly understood, can be observed in yeast vacuoles. This study was performed to reveal the presence of a connection between moving volutin granules of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and polyphosphate metabolism in conditions of phosphoric starvation and hypercompensation. Methods. Cytological, biochemical, statistical methods were used in the study. Results. It was observed that the inactivation of the PPN1 gene, which encodes exopolyphosphatase Ppn1, resulted in a change in the number of cells with moving volutin granules (“dancing bodies” index) in the studied conditions. The index of “dancing bodies” was almost always lower in mutant CRN strain than in parent CRY strain. Using linear correlation analysis and factor analysis with the method of principal component, it was established that the “dancing bodies” index in both strains had significant correlation coefficients with exopolyphosphatase activity (EPPA) and the content of polyphosphate fractions (polyP). The difference was that this index in parent strain correlated better with the first three fractions of inorganic polyphosphates, while in mutant strain – with polyP4 and EPPA. Conclusions. Obtained data indicated the direct connection of motion of volutin granules with phosphoric metabolism in the studied conditions. It is assumed that the phenomenon of “dancing bodies” may be a consequence of the activity of vacuolar polyphosphatases.

Source Identification of Cd and Pb in Typical Farmland Topsoil in the Southwest of China: A Case Study

Cd and Pb in farmland topsoil are controlled by many factors. To identify the source of potential toxic metals in the farmland topsoil around Mianyuan River, the chemical analysis and multivariate statistical analysis are performed in this study. The results indicate the following: (1) The concentration of Cd and Pb in soil exceed the background value of Chinese soil elements. (2) Cd is significantly enriched in the whole region and Pb is locally enriched, both of them are more or less influenced by human activities. (3) The contents of Cd and Pb increase significantly following the flow direction of river. (4) Pb isotope analysis indicates that the main source of Pb in the soil include the air dust, coal and phosphate plant, and the contribution of them decreases successively. (5) Linear correlation analysis and principal component analysis show that the main sources of Cd in the soil are mining phosphate rock, air dust, phosphate plant and coal mining.