偏头痛患者体感刺激下脑电信号的功能连接（英文）

目的 偏头痛是一种复杂的脑功能障碍性疾病,全球范围内患病率为14.4%。功能连接测量两个神经信号之间的统计学相互依赖性,不同的功能连接反映了大脑区域协同工作的不同模式。因此,研究不同脑区的功能连接对于理解偏头痛的病理生理机制具有十分重要的意义。以往基于脑电图对偏头痛患者脑功能连接的分析主要集中在视觉和疼痛刺激。本文尝试研究偏头痛患者在发作间期对体感刺激的皮质反应,以进一步了解偏头痛的神经功能障碍,为偏头痛的预防和治疗提供线索。方法 招募23例无先兆偏头痛患者,10例有先兆偏头痛患者,28名健康对照者。所有受试者均进行详细的基本资料和病史采集,完善量表评估,在正中神经体感刺激下进行脑电图记录。计算68个脑区的相干性作为功能连接,并评估功能连接与临床参数的相关性。结果 在正中神经体感刺激下,无先兆偏头痛和有先兆偏头痛患者的脑电功能连接与对照组相比存在差异,异常的脑电功能连接主要位于感觉辨别、疼痛调节、情绪认知和视觉处理等区域。无先兆偏头痛和有先兆偏头痛患者的大脑皮层对体感刺激可能具有相同的反应方式。偏头痛患者的功能连接异常与临床特征之间存在相关性,可以部分反映偏头痛的严重程度。结论 本研究...     

寄主植物对桑寄生植物叶片功能性状的影响

为了解寄生植物叶片功能性状的差异及其影响因素,研究了西双版纳地区寄主植物对3种桑寄生植物叶片功能性状的影响,并分析了桑寄生植物与寄主植物叶片功能性状的相关性。结果表明,不同寄主植物的相同寄生植物叶片功能性状存在显著差异,来自7种寄主植物的五蕊寄生(Dendrophthoe pentandra)的叶片含水量(61.2%～70.1%)、氮含量(9.6～16.0 g/kg)、碳氮比(30.8～48.5)以及缩合单宁含量(3.3%～11.0%)等性状的差异较大;从4种寄主植物上获取的澜沧江寄生(Scurrula chingii var.yunnanensis)的叶片含水量(60.0%～71.7%)、碳含量(431.3～502.3 g/kg)和缩合单宁含量(3.8%～9.9%)等性状也呈现较大种间差异,而在2种寄主植物上的离瓣寄生(Helixanthera parasitica)的叶片功能性状没有显著差异。桑寄生植物与寄主植物的叶片含水量、总碳含量、总氮含量、碳氮比和缩合单宁含量呈显著的正相关。寄主植物作为桑寄生植物营养物质的主要来源,会影响桑寄生植物叶片的相应功能性状。桑寄生植物能从寄主植物获...     

TTLL11 gene is associated with sustained attention performance and brain networks: A genome-wide association study of a healthy Chinese sample

Genetic studies on attention have mainly focused on children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), so little systematic research has been conducted on genetic correlates of attention performance and their potential brain mechanisms among healthy individuals. The current study included a genome-wide association study (GWAS, N = 1145 healthy young adults) aimed to identify genes associated with sustained attention and an imaging genetics study (an independent sample of 483 healthy young adults) to examine any identified genes' influences on brain function. The GWAS found that TTLL11 showed genome-wide significant associations with sustained attention, with rs13298112 as the most significant SNP and the GG homozygotes showing more impulsive but also more focused responses than the A allele carriers. A retrospective examination of previously published ADHD GWAS results confirmed an un-reported, small but statistically significant effect of TTLL11 on ADHD. The imaging genetics study replicated this association and showed that the TTLL11 gene was associated with resting state activity and connectivity of the somatomoter network, and can be predicted by dorsal attention network connectivity. Specifically, the GG homozygotes showed lower brain activity, weaker brain network connectivity, and non-significant brain-attention association compared to the A allele carriers. Expression database showed that expression of this gene is enriched in the brain and that the G allele is associated with lower expression level than the A allele. These results suggest that TTLL11 may play a major role in healthy individuals' attention performance and may also contribute to the etiology of ADHD.     

Applying single-cell highly multiplexed secretome proteomics to characterize immunotherapeutic products and predict clinical responses

Genetically and phenotypically identical immune cell populations can be highly heterogenous in terms of their immune functions and protein secretion profiles. The microfluidic chip-based single-cell highly multiplexed secretome proteomics enables characterization of cellular heterogeneity of immune responses at different cellular and molecular layers. Increasing evidence has demonstrated that polyfunctional T cells that simultaneously produce 2+ proteins per cell at the single-cell level are key effector cells that contribute to the development of potent and durable cellular immunity against pathogens and cancers. The functional proteomic technology offers a wide spectrum of cellular function assessment and can uniquely define highly polyfunctional cell subsets with cytokine signatures from live individual cells. This high-dimensional single-cell analysis provides deep dissection into functional heterogeneity and helps identify predictive biomarkers and potential correlates that are crucial for immunotherapeutic product design optimization and personalized immunotherapy development to achieve better clinical outcomes.     

The legacy effect of biochar application on soil nitrous oxide emissions

Existing studies suggest that biochar application can reduce soil nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, mainly based on short-term results. However, it remains unclear what the effects (i.e., legacy effects) and underlying mechanisms are on N₂O emissions after many years of a single application of biochar. Here, we collected intact soil columns from plots without and with biochar application in a subtropical tea plantation 7 years ago for an incubation experiment. We used the N₂O isotopocule analysis combined with ammonia oxidizer-specific inhibitors and molecular biology approaches to investigate how the legacy effect of biochar affected soil N₂O emissions. Results showed that the soil in the presence of biochar had lower N₂O emissions than the control albeit statistically insignificant. The legacy effect of biochar in decreasing N₂O emissions may be attributed to the reduced effectiveness of the soil substrate, nitrification and denitrification activities, and the promotion of the further reduction of N₂O. The legacy effect of biochar reduced the relative contribution of nitrifier denitrification/bacterial denitrification, nitrification-related N₂O production, and the relative abundance of several microorganisms involved in the nitrogen cycle. Our global meta-analysis also showed that the reduction of N₂O by biochar increased with increasing application rate but diminished and possibly even reversed with increasing experimental time. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the abatement capacity of biochar on soil N₂O emissions may weaken over time after biochar application, but this remains under further investigation.     

iBench: A ground truth approach for advanced validation of mass spectrometry identification method

The discovery of many noncanonical peptides detectable with sensitive mass spectrometry inside, outside, and on cells shepherded the development of novel methods for their identification, often not supported by a systematic benchmarking with other methods. We here propose iBench, a bioinformatic tool that can construct ground truth proteomics datasets and cognate databases, thereby generating a training court wherein methods, search engines, and proteomics strategies can be tested, and their performances estimated by the same tool. iBench can be coupled to the main database search engines, allows the selection of customized features of mass spectrometry spectra and peptides, provides standard benchmarking outputs, and is open source. The proof-of-concept application to tryptic proteome digestions, immunopeptidomes, and synthetic peptide libraries dissected the impact that noncanonical peptides could have on the identification of canonical peptides by Mascot search with rescoring via Percolator (Mascot+Percolator).     

THE FUNCTIONAL BASIS OF NATURAL SELECTION FOR VERTEBRAL TRAITS OF LARVAE IN THE STICKLEBACK GASTEROSTEUS ACULEATUS

Previous studies have demonstrated selective predation for vertebral traits of larvae in the stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus. I tested the hypothesis that this selection results from a direct functional advantage to particular vertebral phenotypes by direct measurement of the burst swimming performance of larvae. Within a narrow window of lengths, burst speed did depend on vertebral phenotype. As in the previous predation experiments, performance was related more directly to the ratio of abdominal to caudal vertebrae (VR) than to the total number of vertebrae (VN), and the optimal VR decreased as larval length increased. Changes with length in the vertebral phenotype frequencies of wild larvae provided evidence of selection for VR and for VN in the wild. Larvae with particular VR increased in frequency in the wild at just those lengths when their relative performance was superior in the laboratory. The observed pattern of length-dependent selection for vertebral number provides an explanation for the widespread trends in vertebral number that occur among populations of related fishes.     

Plant preference in relation to life history traits in the zoophytophagous predator Dicyphus hesperus

Dicyphus hesperus Knight (Heteroptera: Miridae) is an omnivorous predator used to control pests of greenhouse vegetables. Plant preferences and life history traits were studied using nine plant species: Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. (Solanaceae), Capsicum annuum L. (Solanaceae), Verbascum thapsus L. (Scrophulariaceae), Nepeta cataria L. (Lamiaceae), Stachys albotomentosa (Lamiaceae), Nicotiana tabacum L. (Solanaceae), Vicia sativa L. (Fabaceae), Zea mays L. (Gramineae), and Chrysanthemum coronarium L. (Asteraceae). Plants were selected from among potential target crops, natural hosts, plants used for mass rearing, and plants on which D. hesperus has not been reported. Plant preference was measured by multi‐choice host plant selection and oviposition assays. Development and reproduction were measured on each of the plant species on both a plant diet alone and on a plant diet supplemented with Ephestia kuehniella Zeller (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) eggs. Dicyphus hesperus females and nymphs expressed a preference for some plants over others. Plant preference ranged from low preference plants, such as Z. mays, V. sativa, C. coronarium, and C. annuum, to high preference plants such as V. thapsus, N. tabacum, and S. albotomentosa. When E. kuehniella eggs were supplied, there were few differences in the development time and fecundity of D. hesperus among plants, with the exception of corn and broad bean, where fecundity was lower. On a plant diet alone, nymphs were able to complete their development on V. thapsus, C. annuum, and N. cataria. However, mortality and development time were much lower on V. thapsus than on C. annuum and N. cataria. On most of the plant species D. hesperus did not lay any eggs when fed on a plant diet alone. On V. thapsus, females laid a few eggs and lived longer than when fed on prey. Dicyphus hesperus females tended to prefer host plants on which nymph survival without prey was greatest.     

Root/Shoot Allocation and Root Architecture in Seedlings: Variation among Forest Sites, Microhabitats, and Ecological Groups1

I analyzed patterns of variation in root mass allocation and root morphology among seedlings of woody species in relation to environmental factors in four Neotropical forests. Among forests, I explored the response of root traits to sites varying in water or nutrient availability. Within each forest, I explored the plastic response of species to different microhabitats: gaps and understory. Additionally, I explored evidence for life history correlation of root and shoot traits by comparing species differing in their successional group (light‐demanding [22 spp.] or shade tolerant [27 spp.]) and germination type (species with photosynthetic cotyledons or species with reserve cotyledons). At each forest site, young seedlings from 10 to 20 species were excavated. A total of 55 species was collected in understory conditions and 31 of them were also collected in gaps. From each seedling, six morphological ratios were determined. Allocation to roots was higher in forest sites with the lowest soil resources. Roots were finer and longer in the most infertile site, while roots were deeper in the site with the longest dry season. Seedling traits did not differ between germination types. Shade tolerant species allocated more to roots and developed thicker roots than light‐demanding species. Light‐demanding species showed stronger plastic responses to habitat than shade tolerant species, and species with photo‐synthetic cotyledons showed lower plasticity than species with reserve cotyledons. Overall, these results suggest that among Neotropical species, root allocation and root morphology of seedlings reflect plant adjustments to water or nutrient availability at geographic and microhabitat scales. In addition, life history specialization to light environments is suggested by differences among groups of species in their allocation to roots and in their root morphology.