Prediction of arsenic and fluoride in groundwater of the North China Plain using enhanced stacking ensemble learning.

Chronic exposure to elevated geogenic arsenic (As) and fluoride (F-) concentrations in groundwater poses a significant global health risk. In regions around the world where regular groundwater quality assessments are limited, the presence of harmful levels of As and F- in shallow groundwater extracted from specific wells remains uncertain. This study utilized an enhanced stacking ensemble learning model to predict the distributions of As and F- in shallow groundwater based on 4,393 available datasets of observed concentrations and forty relevant environmental factors. The enhanced model was obtained by fusing well-suited Extreme Gradient Boosting, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine as the base learners and a structurally simple Linear Discriminant Analysis as the meta-learner. The model precisely captured the patchy distributions of groundwater As and F- with an AUC value of 0.836 and 0.853, respectively. The findings revealed that 9.0% of the study area was characterized by a high As risk in shallow groundwater, while 21.2% was at high F- risk identified as having a high risk of fluoride contamination. About 0.2% of the study area shows elevated levels of both of them. The affected populations are estimated at approximately 7.61 million, 34.1 million, and 0.2 million, respectively. Furthermore, sedimentary environment exerted the greatest influence on distribution of groundwater As, with human activities and climate following closely behind at 29.5%, 28.1%, and 21.9%, respectively. Likewise, sedimentary environment was the primary factor affecting groundwater F- distribution, followed by hydrogeology and soil physicochemical properties, contributing 27.8%, 24.0%, and 23.3%, respectively. This study contributed to the identification of health risks associated with shallow groundwater As and F-, and provided insights into evaluating health risks in regions with limited samples.

Hazards and influence factors of arsenic in the upper pleistocene aquifer, Hetao region, using machine learning modeling.

The Hetao region is one of the regions with the most serious problem of the greatest measured arsenic concentrations in China. The enrichment of arsenic in groundwater may poses a great risk to the health of local residents. A comprehensive understanding of the groundwater quality, spatial distribution characteristics and hazard of the high arsenic in groundwater is indispensable for the sustainable utilization of groundwater resources and resident health. This study selected six environmental factors, climate, human activity, sedimentary environment, hydrogeology, soil, and others, as the independent input variables to the model, compared three machine learning algorithms (support vector machine, extreme gradient boosting, and random forest), and mapped unsafe arsenic to estimate the population that may be exposed to unhealthy conditions in the Hetao region. The results show that nearly half the number of the 605 sampling wells for arsenic exceeded the WHO provisional guide value for drinking water, the water chemistry of groundwater are mainly Na-HCO3-Cl or Na-Mg-HCO3-Cl type water, and the groundwater with excessive arsenic concentration is mainly concentrated in the ancient stream channel influence zone and the Yellow River crevasse splay. The results of factor importance explanation revealed that the sedimentary environment was the key factor affecting the primary high arsenic groundwater concentration, followed by climate and human activities. The random forest algorithm produced the probability distribution of high arsenic groundwater that is consistent with the observed results. The estimated area of groundwater with excessive arsenic reached 38.81 %. An estimated 940,000 people could be exposed to high arsenic in groundwater.

Remediation of aniline-contaminated aquifer by combining in-well Rhizobium borbori and circulated groundwater electrolysis.

Aniline has become a common groundwater contaminant due to its wide use as a raw material in agriculture and pharmaceutical products. The current technologies for in situ remediation of aniline in groundwater are limited by the strains deficient in bacterial species, limited oxygen supply, excessive waste gas load and cost. Accordingly, we conducted a laboratory sand tank experiment to remediate groundwater contaminated with aniline by combining circulated groundwater electrolysis and in-well Rhizobium borbori, which was isolated from activated sludge. The results of the experiment indicated that the optimum concentration of aniline for Rhizobium borbori is about 5 mg/L, beyond which the maximum cell density and the highest specific growth rate decreases as the aniline concentration increases. The optimized duration for immobilizing the Rhizobium borbori into the bioreactor is 4-5 days. Though the Rhizobium borbori was strongly inhibited by the high-concentration of aniline, the immobilized bioreactor in the 350 mg/L aniline solution successfully formed biofilm. The aniline volatilization had limited influence on the observation of bioremediation performance, and the combination of circulated groundwater and in-well Rhizobium borbori supplied a steady dose of oxygen to the bioreactor efficiently degrading the entire region between the injection and extraction well. In addition, a numerical model for the sand tank remediation experiment was used to estimate the yield coefficient of oxygen to be 0.484 g/g, which indicates the presence of ammonia nitrogen as by-products; accordingly, a smaller wellbore size as well a higher circulation flow rate and intensity of current are recommended to improve the water quality. Despite the positive outcomes and potential of the newly developed technology to degrade subsurface aniline, parallel experiments should be conducted to estimate the environmental risk of the by-products and explore the controlling mechanisms of each component in this comprehensive system.

Assessment of aquifer specific vulnerability to total nitrate contamination using ensemble learning and geochemical evidence.

Henan Province's plain area is the granary of China, yet its regional aquifer is being polluted by industrial wastewater, agricultural pesticide, fertilizer and domestic wastewater. In order to safeguard the security of food and drinking water, and in response to the problem of low prediction accuracy caused by the lack of samples and unevenly distributed groundwater monitoring data, we propose a new way to predict the aquifer vulnerability in large areas by rich small-scale data, so as to identify the pollution risks and to address the issue of sample shortage. In small regions with abundant nitrate data, we employed a Random Forest model to screen key impact indicators, using them as features and nitrate-N concentration as the target variable. Consequently, we established six machine learning prediction models, and then selected the best bagging model (R2 = 0.86) to predict the vulnerability of aquifers in larger regions lacking nitrate data. The predicted results showed that highly vulnerable areas accounted for 20 %, which were mainly affected by aquifer thickness (65.91 %). High nitrate-N concentration implies serious aquifer contamination. Therefore, a long series of groundwater nitrate-N concentration monitoring data in a large scale, the trend and slope of nitrate-N concentration showed a significant correlation with the model prediction results (Spearman's correlation coefficients are 0.75 and 0.58). This study can help identify the risk of aquifer contamination, solve the problem of sample shortage in large areas, thus contributing to the security of food and drinking water.

Neurocomputational mechanisms underlying fear-biased adaptation learning in changing environments.

Humans are able to adapt to the fast-changing world by estimating statistical regularities of the environment. Although fear can profoundly impact adaptive behaviors, the computational and neural mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain elusive. Here, we conducted a behavioral experiment (n = 21) and a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment (n = 37) with a novel cue-biased adaptation learning task, during which we simultaneously manipulated emotional valence (fearful/neutral expressions of the cue) and environmental volatility (frequent/infrequent reversals of reward probabilities). Across 2 experiments, computational modeling consistently revealed a higher learning rate for the environment with frequent versus infrequent reversals following neutral cues. In contrast, this flexible adjustment was absent in the environment with fearful cues, suggesting a suppressive role of fear in adaptation to environmental volatility. This suppressive effect was underpinned by activity of the ventral striatum, hippocampus, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) as well as increased functional connectivity between the dACC and temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) for fear with environmental volatility. Dynamic causal modeling identified that the driving effect was located in the TPJ and was associated with dACC activation, suggesting that the suppression of fear on adaptive behaviors occurs at the early stage of bottom-up processing. These findings provide a neuro-computational account of how fear interferes with adaptation to volatility during dynamic environments.

Autosomal dominant mental retardation type 5 caused by SYNGAP1 gene mutations: a report of 8 cases and literature review / 中国当代儿科杂志

OBJECTIVES@#To summarize the clinical phenotype and genetic characteristics of children with autosomal dominant mental retardation type 5 caused by SYNGAP1 gene mutations.@*METHODS@#A retrospective analysis was performed on the medical data of 8 children with autosomal dominant mental retardation type 5 caused by SYNGAP1 gene mutations who were diagnosed and treated in the Department of Pediatrics, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University.@*RESULTS@#The mean age of onset was 9 months for the 8 children. All children had moderate-to-severe developmental delay (especially delayed language development), among whom 7 children also had seizures. Among these 8 children, 7 had novel heterozygous mutations (3 with frameshift mutations, 2 with nonsense mutations, and 2 with missense mutations) and 1 had 6p21.3 microdeletion. According to the literature review, there were 48 Chinese children with mental retardation caused by SYNGAP1 gene mutations (including the children in this study), among whom 40 had seizures, and the mean age of onset of seizures was 31.4 months. Frameshift mutations (15/48, 31%) and nonsense mutations (19/48, 40%) were relatively common in these children. In terms of treatment, among the 33 children with a history of epileptic medication, 28 (28/33, 85%) showed response to valproic acid antiepileptic treatment and 16 (16/33, 48%) achieved complete seizure control after valproic acid monotherapy or combined therapy.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Children with autosomal dominant mental retardation type 5 caused by SYNGAP1 gene mutations tend to have an early age of onset, and most of them are accompanied by seizures. These children mainly have frameshift and nonsense mutations. Valproic acid is effective for the treatment of seizures in most children.

Progress of Keystroke Dynamics in Deception Research.

Traditional polygraph techniques mostly rely on the changes of an individual's physiological indicators, such as electrodermal activity, heart rate, breath, eye movement and function of neural signals and other indicators. They are easily affected by individual physical conditions, counter-tests, external environment and other aspects, and it is difficult to conduct large-scale screening tests based on the traditional polygraph techniques. The application of keystroke dynamics to polygraph can overcome the shortcomings of the traditional polygraph techniques to a large extend, increase the reliability of polygraph results and promote the validity of legal evidence of polygraph results in forensic practice. This paper introduces keystroke dynamics and its application in deception research. Compared with the traditional polygraph techniques, keystroke dynamics can be used with a relatively wider application range, not only for deception research but also for identity identification, network screening and other large-scale tests. At the same time, the development direction of keystroke dynamics in the field of polygraph is prospected.

Effect of Bergapten on Apoptosis of HepG2 and Hep3B Cells Through PI3K/Akt Pathway / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Objective::To investigate the effect of bergapten on the apoptosis of HepG2 and Hep3B cells through phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B(Akt) pathway. Method::Bergamot (5, 50, 200 μmol·L-1) groups and blank group were set up. The effect of bergapten at different concentrations on proliferation of HepG2 and Hep3B cells for 24, 48 h were detected by thiazolyl blue(MTT) assay. Apoptosis was detected by Annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide double staining. Quantitative real-time fluorescence reverse transcriptional polymerase chain reaction (Real-time PCR) and Western blot assay were used to detect relevant mRNA and proteins expressions. The clone formation rate and the effect of HepG2 and Hep3B cells in each group were evaluated by plate cell clone formation. Result::MTT assay showed that bergapten could significantly inhibit the proliferation activity of HepG2 and Hep3B cells in a time-dependent manner. Flow cytometry analysis showed that bergapten in 200 μmol·L-1 concentration groups had significant pro-apoptotic effect on HepG2 and Hep3B cells after 48 h (P<0.05). Western blot results showed that bergamolactone could up-regulate the protein expressions of Caspase-3, Caspase-8 (P<0.05), and down-regulate protein expressions of B-lymphocytoma-2 (Bcl-2), PI3K (P<0.05). Real-time PCR results showed that mRNA expressions of PI3K and Akt were decreased(P<0.05). The results of plate cell clone formation experiment showed that with the increase of the concentration of bergamolide, the cell clone formation rate of each group showed a decreasing trend, particularly in 200 μmol·L-1 concentration group (P<0.05). Conclusion::Bergapten can inhibit the proliferation of HepG2 and Hep3B cells, which may be induced through the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

FoxD2-AS1 is a prognostic factor in glioma and promotes temozolomide resistance in a O⁶-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase-dependent manner

Glioma is the most common brain tumor with a dismal prognosis. While temozolomide (TMZ) based chemotherapy significantly improves survival in glioma patients, resistance against this compound commonly leads to glioma treatment failure. Overexpression of long-noncoding RNA (LncRNA) FoxD2 adjacent opposite strand RNA 1 (FoxD2-AS1) was identified to promote glioma development, but the role in TMZ resistance remains unclear. In this paper, we found that FoxD2-AS1 was overexpressed in recurrent glioma, high FoxD2-AS1 expression was significantly correlated with poor patient outcome. Methylation of O⁶-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) is significantly less frequent in high FoxD2-AS1 expression patients. Knockdown of FoxD2-AS1 decreased the proliferation, metastatic ability of glioma cells and promote the sensitivity to TMZ in glioma cells. Furthermore, knockdown of FoxD2-AS1 induced hypermethylation of the promoter region of MGMT. Our data suggested that FoxD2-AS1 is a clinical relevance LncRNA and mediates TMZ resistance by regulating the methylation status of the MGMT promoter region.

Curcumin modulates the apolipoprotein B mRNA editing by coordinating the expression of cytidine deamination to uridine editosome components in primary mouse hepatocytes

Curcumin, an active ingredient of Curcuma longa L., can reduce the concentration of low-density lipoproteins in plasma, in different ways. We had first reported that curcumin exhibits hypocholesterolemic properties by improving the apolipoprotein B (apoB) mRNA editing in primary rat hepatocytes. However, the role of curcumin in the regulation of apoB mRNA editing is not clear. Thus, we investigated the effect of curcumin on the expression of multiple editing components of apoB mRNA cytidine deamination to uridine (C-to-U) editosome. Our results demonstrated that treatment with 50 µM curcumin markedly increased the amount of edited apoB mRNA in primary mouse hepatocytes from 5.13%–8.05% to 27.63%–35.61%, and significantly elevated the levels of the core components apoB editing catalytic polypeptide-1 (APOBEC-1), apobec-1 complementation factor (ACF), and RNA-binding-motif-protein-47 (RBM47), as well as suppressed the level of the inhibitory component glycine-arginine-tyrosine-rich RNA binding protein. Moreover, the increased apoB RNA editing by 50 µM curcumin was significantly reduced by siRNA-mediated APOBEC-1, ACF, and RBM47 knockdown. These findings suggest that curcumin modulates apoB mRNA editing by coordinating the multiple editing components of the editosome in primary hepatocytes. Our data provided evidence for curcumin to be used therapeutically to prevent atherosclerosis.

Analysis of GCH1 gene mutation of close relatives marriage caused dopa reactive dystonia ( report of one family) / 临床神经病学杂志

Objective To analyze the characteristics of GCH1 gene mutation of close relatives marriage caused dopa reactive dystonia (DRD).Methods The data of 3 patients with DRD from the same family in our hospital and their families were analyzed.Genes related to hereditary dyskinesia in their families were detected and validated. Results In this family, the proband’s parents (Ⅲ3 and Ⅲ4) were close relatives.The proband (Ⅳ2) and her eldest daughter (Ⅴ2) and niece (Ⅴ7) were all DRD patients.All of them were young onset , mainly manifested as Parkinsonina-like symptoms and dystonia , and all responded well to dopamine therapy.Gene detection showed that the GCH1 gene had c.245T＞C (p.Leu82Pro) mutation.The second daughter (Ⅴ3), son (Ⅴ5), granddaughter (Ⅵ3) and brother (Ⅳ3) of the proband were carriers of abnormal genes.Conclusions Close relatives marriage increases the incidence of DRD.DRD may be considered in patients with a positive family history of dystonia.Gene detection is an effective diagnosis method.

Effects of squalene on expression of LDLR in HepG2 cells and its mechanism / 中国药理学通报

Aim To investigate the effect of squalene on LDLR expression in HepG2 cells and its mechanism of down-regulated cholesterol. Methods The prolifer-ation of HepG2 cells exposed to squalene at different concentrations was measured by MTT assay. The effect of squalene on the expression of LDLR in HepG2 cells was measured by flow cytometry and fluorescence mi-croscopy. The effect of different concentrations of squa-lene on the interaction between SCAP and Insig2, two key protein molecules of SREBP pathway, was assayed by FRET technology. Results MTT results showed that squalene had inhibitory effect on the proliferation of HepG2 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Flow cy-tometry and fluorescence microscopy results showed that squalene enhanced LDLR expression in HepG2 cells compared with the control group. The results of FRET technology revealed that compared with model control group, the YFP fluorescence value in Squalene group dramatically declined, and the YFP fluorescence value of each drug group decreased with the range of 5~25 μmol·L-1 squalene concentration. Conclusions Squalene may promote the expression of LDLR in HepG2 cells through inhibiting the interaction between SCAP and Insig2 proteins in SREBP pathway, which may confirm that squalene is a potential novel drug for the down-regulation of cholesterol level.

Joint Resource Optimization for Cognitive Sensor Networks with SWIPT-Enabled Relay.

Energy-constrained wireless networks, such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs), are usually powered by fixed energy supplies (e.g., batteries), which limits the operation time of networks. Simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is a promising technique to prolong the lifetime of energy-constrained wireless networks. This paper investigates the performance of an underlay cognitive sensor network (CSN) with SWIPT-enabled relay node. In the CSN, the amplify-and-forward (AF) relay sensor node harvests energy from the ambient radio-frequency (RF) signals using power splitting-based relaying (PSR) protocol. Then, it helps forward the signal of source sensor node (SSN) to the destination sensor node (DSN) by using the harvested energy. We study the joint resource optimization including the transmit power and power splitting ratio to maximize CSN's achievable rate with the constraint that the interference caused by the CSN to the primary users (PUs) is within the permissible threshold. Simulation results show that the performance of our proposed joint resource optimization can be significantly improved.

Research Progress on the Relationship between miRNAs and Common Liver Diseases / 浙江中医药大学学报

[Obiective] To summarize the research development of the relationship between the occurrence and development of common liver diseases and miRNAs by reading and analysing the literature published in recent 10 years. [Method] By literature retrieval, we consult the literature about miRNA and the clinical research of relevant liver diseases since 2003 and summarize the regulatory mechanism of miRNAs in liver diseases. [Result] miRNAs regulate the expression of target genes at the post-transcriptional level, and they are involved in many important biological processes. In recent years, we can find that miRNAs take part in the regulation of many liver disease-related genes, and the expression level in hepatocellular carcinoma, viral hepatitis, liver fibro-sis, cirrhosis, alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver change in different levels. Part of the regulatory mechanism of miRNAs has been clearly identified, suggesting that miRNAs wil be used as new therapeutic targets for liver diseases. [Conclusion] The regulatory mechanisms of miRNAs in liver diseases make a big difference for the prevention and treatment of liver diseases. These findings provide some novel thoughts about the detection, study and treat-ment about relevant liver diseases. However, many questions are stil vague and unknown, such as the net of its expression and regulation, its biological functions, and the relationship with liver diseases, and al of them are needed to get further attention.

Analysis of alternative splicing pattern of ADAR2 pre-mRNA in human glioma cell lines / 中国肿瘤临床

Objective:This study aims to analyze the differences in the alternative splicing pattern of ADAR2 among glioma cell lines U87, U251, A172, and normal human astrocyte HA1800. Methods:A-to-I editing level at the Q/R-Site of GluR-2 was analyzed by RT-PCR and sequencing. Real-time PCR was performed to detect the expression level of each alternatively splicing variant using a specific primer that was confirmed to amplify only the targeted template and not other alternatively spliced variant fragments. Results:We verified that the Q/R-Site of GluR-2 is under-edited in glioma cell lines. Real-time PCR revealed that the ADAR2 pre-mRNA splic-ing pattern has no significant difference at exons 1a and 2 between glioma cell lines and normal human astrocyte. We also detected that the amount of alternative splicing variants, including exon 5a, was higher than that of alternative splicing variants not including exon 5a in human glioma cell lines. However, the expression of alternative splicing variants, including exon 5a, was lower than that of alterna-tive splicing variants not including exon 5a in human astrocyte. Conclusion:Evident differences in splicing were observed at the site of exon 5a between glioma cell lines and normal human astrocytes. The difference in the alternatively splicing pattern at exon 5a may be attributed to the decreased activity of ADAR2.

Protective effects of glucagon-like peptide 2 on intestinal ischemia/reperfusion injury in mice / 中国应用生理学杂志

<p><b>AIM</b>To investigate the protective effects of glucagon-like peptide 2(GLP-2) on intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in mice.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Intestinal ischemia/reperfusion model in mice were set up and 32 mice of Kunming species were divided randomly into 4 groups (n=8): Sham group, I/R group, I/R + GLP-2 group and I/R + glutamine group. The morphologic changes of intestinal mucosa were observed under LM. The villus height and crypt depth of intestine, the activity of diamine oxidase (DAO) in intestine and bacterial translocation rates of mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) were detected.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Compared with sham operation group, the intestinal villi were sloughed in I/R group with decreased villus height and crypt depth (P < 0.01), the DAO activities were decreased (P < 0.01), and MLN bacterial translocation rates were increased (P < 0.05). While GLP-2 administration improved the villus damage, increased DAO activity (P < 0.01), and decreased MLN bacterial translocation rates (P < 0.05), compared with I/R group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>GLP-2 have protective effects on intestinal morphology and barrier function after ischemia/reperfusion injury in mice.</p>

Effects of vagotomy on UCP2 mRNA expression and gastric acid secretion in rats / 中国应用生理学杂志

<p><b>AIM</b>The relationship between gastric acid secretion and ATP level, and regulation of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) mRNA expression by vagus nerve were studied in vagotomies rats.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>With the high selective vagotomy model, the gastric acidity was titrated to pH 7.0 with 0.1 mol/L NaOH solution and ATP contents were quantified by using fluorimetry. The expression of UCP2 mRNA was observed by using Northern blot in stomach of rats.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Both of gastric acidity and ATP contents in stomach body decreased significantly at 24 h after vagotomy. The expression of UCP2 mRNA was markedly increased as compared with sham operation group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>ATP contents decreased and vagus nerve down-regulates expression of UCP2 mRNA in stomach corpus in vagotomies rats. The results indicates that vagus nerve could underlay the gastric acidity by inhibiting expression of UCP2 mRNA and increasing ATP contents in rats.</p>