Association of Cerebral Networks in Resting State with Sexual Preference of Homosexual Men: A Study of Regional Homogeneity and Functional Connectivity

Recent imaging studies have shown that brain morphology and neural activity during sexual arousal differ between homosexual and heterosexual men. However, functional differences in neural networks at the resting state is unknown. The study is to characterize the association of homosexual preference with measures of regional homogeneity and functional connectivity in the resting state. Participants were 26 healthy homosexual men and 26 age-matched healthy heterosexual men in whom we collected echo planar magnetic resonance imaging data in the resting state. The sexual orientation was evaluated using the Kinsey Scale. We first assessed group differences in regional homogeneity and then, taking the identified differences as seed regions, we compared groups in measures of functional connectivity from those seeds. The behavioral significances of the differences in regional homogeneity and functional connectivity were assessed by examining their associations with Kinsey Scores. Homosexual participants showed significantly reduced regional homogeneity in the left inferior occipital gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, right superior occipital gyrus, left cuneus, right precuneus, and increased regional homogeneity in rectal gyrus, bilateral midbrain, and left temporal lobe. Regional homogeneity correlated positively with Kinsey scores in the left inferior occipital gyrus. The homosexual group also showed reduced functional connectivity between left middle temporal gyrus, left supra-marginal gyrus, right cuneus and the seed region, i.e. left inferior occipital gyrus. Additionly, the connection between the left inferior occipital gyrus and right thalamus correlated positively with Kinsey scores. These differences in regional homogeneity and functional connectivity may contribute to a better understanding of the neural basis of male sexual orientation.     

A Computational Approach to Characterizing the Impact of Social Influence on Individuals’ Vaccination Decision Making

In modeling individuals vaccination decision making, existing studies have typically used the payoff-based (e.g., game-theoretical) approaches that evaluate the risks and benefits of vaccination. In reality, whether an individual takes vaccine or not is also influenced by the decisions of others, i.e., due to the impact of social influence. In this regard, we present a dual-perspective view on individuals decision making that incorporates both the cost analysis of vaccination and the impact of social influence. In doing so, we consider a group of individuals making their vaccination decisions by both minimizing the associated costs and evaluating the decisions of others. We apply social impact theory (SIT) to characterize the impact of social influence with respect to individuals interaction relationships. By doing so, we propose a novel modeling framework that integrates an extended SIT-based characterization of social influence with a game-theoretical analysis of cost minimization. We consider the scenario of voluntary vaccination against an influenza-like disease through a series of simulations. We investigate the steady state of individuals’ decision making, and thus, assess the impact of social influence by evaluating the coverage of vaccination for infectious diseases control. Our simulation results suggest that individuals high conformity to social influence will increase the vaccination coverage if the cost of vaccination is low, and conversely, will decrease it if the cost is high. Interestingly, if individuals are social followers, the resulting vaccination coverage would converge to a certain level, depending on individuals’ initial level of vaccination willingness rather than the associated costs. We conclude that social influence will have an impact on the control of an infectious disease as they can affect the vaccination coverage. In this respect, our work can provide a means for modeling the impact of social influence as well as for estimating the effectiveness of a voluntary vaccination program.     

Nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase mRNA expression is related to human obesity

Objective:

A spontaneous deletion in the nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase (Nnt) gene eliminating exons 7‐11 in C57BL/6J (B6J) mice is associated with reduced glucose‐stimulated insulin secretion in vitro, impaired glucose tolerance, higher epigonadal fat mass, and altered susceptibility to diet induced obesity of male B6J mice was proposed. A potential implication for NNT in human adipose tissue distribution has not been investigated so far.

Design and Methods:

Therefore, NNT mRNA expression in paired human samples of visceral (vis) and subcutaneous (sc) adipose tissue from 221 subjects with a wide range of body mass index (BMI), insulin sensitivity, and glucose tolerance was analyzed.

Results:

NNT mRNA expression is significantly higher in visceral fat of obese patients and correlates with body weight, BMI, % body fat, visceral and sc fat area, waist and hip circumference, and fasting plasma insulin (FPI). Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed visceral NNT expression as age and gender independent predictor of BMI, waist circumference, visceral fat area, and % body fat, but not FPI and 2 h OGTT glucose.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, a functional relevance of NNT in the development of human obesity and visceral fat distribution was suggested here.     

Drug Use and Sex Work: Competing Risk Factors for Newly Acquired HIV in Yunnan,China

Objective

To investigate the HIV incidence and its related factors among female sex workers (FSWs) in a high prevalence area where injection drug use is also widely documented.

Method

A cross-sectional study of 1642 female sex workers (FSWs) was conducted in Honghe Prefecture of Yunnan Province. Interviewed-questionnaires were administrated to collect information on sexual partnerships, condom use and illicit drug using behaviors etc. Blood samples were collected to test for HIV antibodies, and all HIV seropositive specimens were tested with the BED IgG capture-based enzyme immunosorbent assay (BED-CEIA) to distinguish between new and established HIV infection (<153 days).

Results

15.9% (261/1642) of participants reported ever having used drugs, and 7.4% had injected in recent 3 months. The overall HIV prevalence was 10.2% (168/1642), among which 16.7% (28/168) were identified as recent infections using BED-CEIA. The crude HIV incidence estimated from BED-CEIA results was 4.4 (95%CI 2.8–6.0) /100 person years (PY). Multivariate logistic analysis showed that an illicit drug using history (by either self-reporting or urine opiates testing) was both significant risk factors both for HIV established and recent infection (each p<0.05). Drug using FSWs (DU-FSW) reported more male clients in the previous week, and had significantly higher prevalence of HIV, chlamydia trachomatis and HSV-2 as compared to non DU-FSW (each p<0.05).

Conclusion

Our results show that a history of drug use poses significant risks for both new and established HIV infection among FSWs, and that HIV-incidence among Honghe FSWs is relatively high compared to similar populations. Comprehensive interventions targeted at DU-FSWs'' injection drug using and high risk sexual behaviors are urgently needed to reduce the rapid spread of HIV epidemic.     

Educational Level,Obesity and Incidence of Diabetes among Chinese Adult Men and Women Aged 18–59 Years Old: An 11-Year Follow-Up Study

Objective

To determine whether educational level and overweight/obesity was associated with the development of diabetes among Chinese adult men and women.

Methods

A cohort (2000–2011) of 10 704 participants aged 18–59 years (8 238 men, 2 466 women) in Qingdao Port Health Study (QPHS) were recruited in this study. The personal lifestyle, height, weight, waist circumference, resting heart rate, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides and plasma uric acid were collected annually in a comprehensive health checkup program. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the association of factors and incidence of diabetes.

Results

During 110 825 person-years of follow-up, 1 056 new onset cases (9.5 per 1 000 person-years) of diabetes were identified. With normal weight as reference, the multiple-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) (95%CI) of diabetes was 1.69(1.38–2.09) for overweight and 2.24(1.66–3.02) for obesity among men, which was 1.81(1.12–2.92) and 2.58(1.37–4.86) among women, respectively. Compared with the participants with high educational level, those with low educational level had a higher risk of diabetes (multiple-adjusted HR (95%CI): 1.43(1.11–1.86)) among men. The association was not found among women and the adjusted HR (95%CI) of diabetes was 1.56(0.89–2.76). The increased risks of low educational level were independent of mediators among men, through normal weight (P for trend = 0.0313) and overweight (P for trend = 0.0212) group but not obesity group (P for trend = 0.0957).

Conclusion

Baseline overweight/obesity was an independent risk factor for diabetes for both men and women. Low educational level was adversely associated with incidence of diabetes through normal weight, overweight and obesity groups, with the association being substantially attenuated by mediating factors only in the obesity group among men. The association was not found among women.     

Realization of Graphene-Based Tunable Plasmon-Induced Transparency by the Dipole-Dipole Coupling

A numerical and theoretical study is presented on the realization of tunable plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) phenomenon in the three-dimensional patterned graphene nanostrips. The simulation results reveal that the PIT effect is generated due to the excitation of dark mode which can be considered a dipole. The three-level plasmonic system is employed to explain the physical mechanism of the PIT effect. Different from previous reported form (dipole-quadrupole coupling), the proposed is attributed to the dipole-dipole coupling. The PIT effect can be tuned by changing the coupling length between bright and dark mode as well as the Fermi energy of graphene. Our studies provide guidance for fabricating ultra-compact devices in practical application.     

Autophagy regulates spermatid differentiation via degradation of PDLIM1

Spermiogenesis is a complex and highly ordered spermatid differentiation process that requires reorganization of cellular structures. We have previously found that Atg7 is required for acrosome biogenesis. Here, we show that autophagy regulates the round and elongating spermatids. Specifically, we found that Atg7 is required for spermatozoa flagella biogenesis and cytoplasm removal during spermiogenesis. Spermatozoa motility of atg7-null mice dropped significantly with some extra-cytoplasm retained on the mature sperm head. These defects are associated with an impairment of the cytoskeleton organization. Functional screening revealed that the negative cytoskeleton organization regulator, PDLIM1 (PDZ and LIM domain 1 [elfin]), needs to be degraded by the autophagy-lysosome-dependent pathway to facilitate the proper organization of the cytoskeleton. Our results thus provide a novel mechanism showing that autophagy regulates cytoskeleton organization mainly via degradation of PDLIM1 to facilitate the differentiation of spermatids.     

Trade‐Off between Trap Filling,Trap Creation,and Charge Recombination Results in Performance Increase at Ultralow Doping Levels in Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells

Doping of organic bulk heterojunction solar cells has the potential to improve their power conversion efficiency (PCE). Deconvoluting the effect of doping on charge transport, recombination, and energetic disorder remains challenging. It is demonstrated that molecular doping has two competing effects: on one hand, dopant ions create additional traps while on the other hand free dopant‐induced charges fill deep states possibly leading to V _OC and mobility increases. It is shown that molar dopant concentrations as low as a few parts per million can improve the PCE of organic bulk heterojunctions. Higher concentrations degrade the performance of the cells. In doped cells where PCE is observed to increase, such improvement cannot be attributed to better charge transport. Instead, the V _OC increase in unannealed P3HT:PCBM cells upon doping is indeed due to trap filling, while for annealed P3HT:PCBM cells the change in V _OC is related to morphology changes and dopant segregation. In PCDTBT:PC70BM cells, the enhanced PCE upon doping is explained by changes in the thickness of the active layer. This study highlights the complexity of bulk doping in organic solar cells due to the generally low doping efficiency and the constraint on doping concentrations to avoid carrier recombination and adverse morphology changes.     

mTORC1 in Thymic Epithelial Cells Is Critical for Thymopoiesis,T-Cell Generation,and Temporal Control of γδT17 Development and TCRγ/δ Recombination

Thymus is crucial for generation of a diverse repertoire of T cells essential for adaptive immunity. Although thymic epithelial cells (TECs) are crucial for thymopoiesis and T cell generation, how TEC development and function are controlled is poorly understood. We report here that mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) in TECs plays critical roles in thymopoiesis and thymus function. Acute deletion of mTORC1 in adult mice caused severe thymic involution. TEC-specific deficiency of mTORC1 (mTORC1KO) impaired TEC maturation and function such as decreased expression of thymotropic chemokines, decreased medullary TEC to cortical TEC ratios, and altered thymic architecture, leading to severe thymic atrophy, reduced recruitment of early thymic progenitors, and impaired development of virtually all T-cell lineages. Strikingly, temporal control of IL-17-producing γδT (γδT17) cell differentiation and TCRVγ/δ recombination in fetal thymus is lost in mTORC1KO thymus, leading to elevated γδT17 differentiation and rearranging of fetal specific TCRVγ/δ in adulthood. Thus, mTORC1 is central for TEC development/function and establishment of thymic environment for proper T cell development, and modulating mTORC1 activity can be a strategy for preventing thymic involution/atrophy.