The perceptual dysfunctions have been fundamental causes of cognitive and emotional problems in patients with major depressive disorder. However, visual system impairment in depression has been underexplored. Here, we explored functional connectivity in a large cohort of first-episode medication-naïve patients with major depressive disorder (n = 190) and compared it with age- and sex-matched healthy controls (n = 190). A recently developed individual-oriented approach was applied to parcellate the cerebral cortex into 92 regions of interest using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. Significant reductions in functional connectivities were observed between the right lateral occipitotemporal junction within the visual network and 2 regions of interest within the sensorimotor network in patients. The volume of right lateral occipitotemporal junction was also significantly reduced in major depressive disorder patients, indicating that this visual region is anatomically and functionally impaired. Behavioral correlation analysis showed that the reduced functional connectivities were significantly associated with inhibition control in visual-motor processing in patients. Taken together, our data suggest that functional connectivity between visual network and sensorimotor network already shows a significant reduction in the first episode of major depressive disorder, which may interfere with the inhibition control in visual-motor processing. The lateral occipitotemporal junction may be a hub of disconnection and may play a role in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder.

Animal-derived biomaterials have been extensively employed in clinical practice owing to their compositional and structural similarities with those of human tissues and organs, exhibiting good mechanical properties and biocompatibility, and extensive sources. However, there is an associated risk of infection with pathogenic microorganisms after the implantation of tissues from pigs, cattle, and other mammals in humans. Therefore, researchers have begun to explore the development of non-mammalian regenerative biomaterials. Among these is the swim bladder, a fish-derived biomaterial that is rapidly used in various fields of biomedicine because of its high collagen, elastin, and polysaccharide content. However, relevant reviews on the biomedical applications of swim bladders as effective biomaterials are lacking. Therefore, based on our previous research and in-depth understanding of this field, this review describes the structures and compositions, properties, and modifications of the swim bladder, with their direct (including soft tissue repair, dural repair, cardiovascular repair, and edible and pharmaceutical fish maw) and indirect applications (including extracted collagen peptides with smaller molecular weights, and collagen or gelatin with higher molecular weights used for hydrogels, and biological adhesives or glues) in the field of biomedicine in recent years. This review provides insights into the use of swim bladders as source of biomaterial; hence, it can aid biomedicine scholars by providing directions for advancements in this field.

Suicide is a complex behavior strongly associated with depression. Despite extensive research, an objective biomarker for evaluating the suicide risk precisely and timely is still lacking. Using the precision resting-state fMRI method, we studied 61 depressive patients with suicide ideation (SI) or suicide attempt (SA), and 35 patients without SI to explore functional biomarkers of suicide risk. Among them, 21 participants also completed electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatment, allowing the examination of functional changes across different risk states within the same individual. Functional networks were localized in each subject using resting-state fMRI and then an individualized connectome was constructed to represent the subject’s functional brain organization. Compared to patients without SI, patients with suicide risk showed hyper-connectivity involving the frontoparietal network (FPN, p = 0.001). ECT treatment normalized these hyper-connections, with connectivity between the FPN and limbic system (LMB) showing the most significant reduction ( p < 0.001). Post-hoc analysis indicated that the FPN-LMB connectivity was also significantly altered in the SA group compared to the SI group ( p = 0.001), which may reflect the elevation of suicide risk across these two groups. These findings suggest that functional coupling between the FPN and LMB may constitute an important biomarker for evaluating suicide risk and may provide potential targets for interventions such as non-invasive brain stimulation.

BACKGROUND: Neuroimaging studies of major depression have typically been conducted using group-level approaches. However, given interindividual differences in brain systems, there is a need for individualized approaches to brain systems mapping and putative links toward diagnosis, symptoms, and behavior. METHODS: We used an iterative parcellation approach to map individualized brain systems in 328 participants from a multisite, placebo-controlled clinical trial. We hypothesized that participants with depression would show abnormalities in salience, control, default, and affective systems, which would be associated with higher levels of self-reported anhedonia, anxious arousal, and worse cognitive performance. Within hypothesized brain systems, we compared patch sizes (number of vertices) between depressed and healthy control groups. Within depressed groups, abnormal patches were correlated with hypothesized clinical and behavioral measures. RESULTS: Significant group differences emerged in hypothesized patches of 1) the lateral salience system (parietal operculum; t326 = -3.11, p = .002) and 2) the control system (left medial posterior prefrontal cortex region; z = -3.63, p , .001), with significantly smaller patches in these regions in participants with depression than in healthy control participants. Results suggest that participants with depression with significantly smaller patch sizes in the lateral salience system and control system regions experience greater anxious arousal and cognitive deficits. CONCLUSIONS: The findings imply that neural features mapped at the individual level may relate meaningfully to diagnosis, symptoms, and behavior. There is strong clinical relevance in taking an individualized brain systems approach to mapping neural functional connectivity because these associated region patch sizes may help advance our understanding of neural features linked to psychopathology and foster future patient-specific clinical decision making.

Efficient transceivers and antennas at terahertz frequencies are leading the development of 6G terahertz communication systems. The antenna design for high-resolution terahertz spatial sensing and communication remains challenging, while emergent metallic metasurface antennas can address this issue but often suffer from low efficiency and complex manufacturing. Here, an all-dielectric integrated meta-antenna operating in 6G terahertz communication window for high-efficiency beam focusing in the sub-wavelength scale is reported. With the antenna surface functionalized by metagrating arrays with asymmetric scattering patterns, the design and optimization methods are demonstrated with a physical size constraint. The highest manipulation and diffraction efficiencies achieve 84.1% and 48.1%. The commercially accessible fabrication method with low cost and easy to implement has been demonstrated for the meta-antenna by photocuring 3D printing. A filamentous focal spot is measured as 0.86λ with a long depth of focus of 25.3λ. Its application for integrated imaging and communication has been demonstrated. The proposed technical roadmap provides a general pathway for creating high-efficiency integrated meta-antennas with great potential in high-resolution 6G terahertz spatial sensing and communication applications.

BACKGROUND: Voice hearing (VH) is a transdiagnostic experience that is common in trauma-related disorders. However, the neural substrates that underlie trauma-related VH remain largely unexplored. While auditory perceptual dysfunction is among the abnormalities implicated in VH in schizophrenia, whether VH in trauma- related disorders also involves auditory perceptual alterations is unknown. METHODS: We investigated auditory cortex (AC)-related functional connectivity (FC) in 65 women with trauma-related disorders stemming from childhood abuse with varying severities of VH. Using a novel, computationally driven and individual-specific method of functionally parcellating the brain, we calculated the FC of 2 distinct AC subregions- Heschl's gyrus (corresponding to the primary AC) and lateral superior temporal gyrus (in the nonprimary AC)-with both the cerebrum and cerebellum. Then, we measured the association between VH severity and FC using leave- one-out cross-validation in the cerebrum and voxelwise multiple regression analyses in the cerebellum. RESULTS: We found that VH severity was positively correlated with left lateral superior temporal gyrus-frontoparietal network FC, while it was negatively correlated with FC between the left lateral superior temporal gyrus and both cerebral and cerebellar representations of the default mode network. VH severity was not predicted by FC of the left Heschl's gyrus or right AC subregions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings point to altered interactions between auditory perceptual processing and higher-level processes related to self-reference and executive functioning. This is the first study to show alterations in auditory cortical connectivity in trauma-related VH. While VH in trauma-related disorders appears to be mediated by brain networks that are also implicated in VH in schizophrenia, the results suggest a unique mechanism that could distinguish VH in trauma-related disorders.

Unimpeded domestic inter-regional trade is an inevitable choice for a country to improve its economic development autonomy and internal stability. The booming development of the digital economy profoundly affects inter-regional trade exchanges and the construction of domestic trade patterns. Based on China's inter-provincial panel data, this study analyzes the mechanism channels and regional heterogeneity of the digital economy's impact on inter-regional trade. We found that firstly, the digital economy significantly promotes inter-regional trade outflows and inflows with positive spatial spillover effects. Secondly, the digital economy promotes inter-regional trade by reducing trade costs and stimulating market demand, while the role of the resource allocation effect and technological innovation effect needs to be enhanced. Thirdly, the promotion of inter-regional trade by the digital economy is more prominent and has the potential for less developed regions or non-border regions. In addition, the digital economy significantly boosts inter-regional trade in labor-intensive regions, while it has a limited effect on inter-regional trade in technology-intensive regions. Therefore, this study suggests increasing the construction of digital infrastructure in less developed regions, tapping the role of the digital economy in resource allocation, and promoting the in-depth integration of the digital economy with the region's advantageous industries, so as to promote inter-regional trade and economic development.

High-intensity Magnetic Resonance-guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) is a recent, non-invasive line of treatment for medication-resistant tremor. We used MRgFUS to produce small lesions in the thalamic ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM), an important node in the cerebello-thalamo-cortical tremor network, in 13 patients with tremor-dominant Parkinson's disease or essential tremor. Significant tremor alleviation in the target hand ensued (t(12) = 7.21, p < 0.001, two-tailed), which was strongly associated with the functional reorganization of the brain's hand region with the cerebellum (r = 0.91, p < 0.001, one-tailed). This reorganization potentially reflected a process of normalization, as there was a trend of increase in similarity between the hand cerebellar connectivity of the patients and that of a matched, healthy control group (n = 48) after treatment. Control regions in the ventral attention, dorsal attention, default, and frontoparietal networks, in comparison, exhibited no association with tremor alleviation and no normalization. More broadly, changes in functional connectivity were observed in regions belonging to the motor, limbic, visual, and dorsal attention networks, largely overlapping with regions connected to the lesion targets. Our results indicate that MRgFUS is a highly efficient treatment for tremor, and that lesioning the VIM may result in the reorganization of the cerebello-thalamo-cortical tremor network.

AIMS:Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a lethal neurodegenerative disorder, which leads to a rapidly progressive dementia. This study aimed to examine the cortical alterations in CJD, changes in these brain characteristics over time, and the differences between CJD and Alzheimer's disease (AD) that show similar clinical manifestations.METHODS:To obtain reliable, subject-specific functional measures, we acquired 24 min of resting-state fMRI data from each subject. We applied an individual-based approach to characterize the functional brain organization of 10 patients with CJD, 8 matched patients with AD, and 8 normal controls. We measured cortical atrophy as well as disruption in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) and then investigated longitudinal brain changes in a subset of CJD patients.RESULTS:CJD was associated with widespread cortical thinning and weakened rsFC. Compared with AD, CJD showed distinct atrophy patterns and greater disruptions in rsFC. Moreover, the longitudinal data demonstrated that the progressive cortical thinning and disruption in rsFC mainly affected the association rather than the primary cortex in CJD.CONCLUSIONS:CJD shows unique anatomical and functional disruptions in the cerebral cortex, distinct from AD. Rapid progression of CJD affects both the cortical thickness and rsFC in the association cortex.

The high proportion of wind and solar power has significantly increased the peak shaving demand of power system, and different types of energy have different capacities and costs to participate in peak shaving. In view of this, this paper proposes a multi alliance assisted peak shaving market strategy for new energy consumption. Firstly, it analyzes the economic benefits of common thermal power units, new energy plants and hydropower stations, and then simulates the multi-scale combination of various entities and constructs the Shapley value dynamic analysis model of the correlation between the ancillary service income and the output ratio, and puts forward the allocation strategy of the combined benefits of the multi energy alliance. Finally, the simulation analysis is carried out to demonstrate the coupling relationship between the peak and valley power difference mode meeting the real-time load demand and the dynamic allocation of ancillary services. This mode reflects the changing trend of the equilibrium combination of the ancillary services market, and can balance the volatility of renewable energy in general to reduce the negative impact of the real-time market trading increment on the earnings of each entity. It also lays a foundation for the dynamic combination and optimization of decision-making among the agents and for mining the value of resources within the alliance.

Thrombosis is an important factor that causes the failure of artificial biological valves in addition to calcification and immune rejection. A hydrophobic antifouling surface can improve blood compatibility by reducing the absorption of protein. In this study, porcine pericardium was cross-linked with glycidyl methacrylate, and carbon-carbon double bonds were introduced. Then, fluoride monomer was added so that the pericardial surface would become hydrophobic and antifouling. Fluoride modification changed the hydrophilicity of the pericardium surface, and the surface water contact angle increased from 84° to 143°. Compared with unmodified pericardium, the adsorption of bovine serum albumin and fibrinogen decreased by 93.1% and 85%, respectively, and the anti-thrombogenicity was greatly enhanced.

Atopic dermatitis (AD), a type of skin inflammation, is associated with immune response mediated by T-helper 2 (Th2) cells, and mast cells. Vasicine is an alkaloid isolated from Adhatoda vasica, a popular Ayurvedic herbal medicine used for treating inflammatory conditions. In the present study, the anti-AD effects of vasicine were evaluated on 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene-induced AD-like skin lesions in BALB/c mice. The potential anti-allergic effects of vasicine were also assessed using the passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) test. The results showed that the oral administration of vasicine improved the severity of AD-like lesional skin by decreasing histopathological changes and restoring epidermal thickness. Vasicine also inhibited the infiltration of mast cells in the skin and reduced the levels of pro-Th2 and Th2 cytokines as well as immunoglobulin E in the serum. Finally, vasicine inhibited the expression of pro-Th2 and Th2 cytokines in skin tissues, indicating the therapeutic potential of vasicine for AD.

Background: To improve treatment outcomes of patients with schizophrenia, research efforts have focused on identifying brain-based markers of treatment response. Personal characteristics regarding disease-related behaviors likely stem from interindividual variability in the organization of brain functional systems. This study aimed to track dimension-specific changes in psychotic symptoms following risperidone treatment using individual-level functional connectivity (FC).Methods: A reliable cortical parcellation approach that accounts for individual heterogeneity in cortical functional anatomy was used to localize functional regions in a longitudinal cohort consisting of 42, drug-naive, first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients at baseline and after 8 weeks of risperidone treatment. FC was calculated in individually specified brain regions and used to predict the baseline severity and improvement of positive and negative symptoms in FES.Results: Distinct sets of individual-specific FC were separately associated with the positive and negative symptom burden at baseline, which could be used to track the corresponding symptom resolution in FES patients following risperidone treatment. Between-network connections of the fronto-parietal network (FPN) contributed the most to predicting the positive symptom domain. A combination of between-network connections of the default mode network, FPN, and within-network connections of the FPN contributed markedly to the prediction model of negative symptoms.Conclusion: This novel study, which accounts for individual brain variation, takes a step toward establishing individual-specific theranostic biomarkers in schizophrenia. Impact statementThis study revealed a theranostic marker for personalized medicine in schizophrenia and may aid in circuit-specific therapies for this disorder.

Background Volumetric alterations of subcortical structures as predictors of antipsychotic treatment response have been previously corroborated, but less is known about whether their morphological covariance relates to treatment outcome and is driven by gene expression and epigenetic modifications. Methods Subcortical volumetric covariance was analyzed by using baseline T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 38 healthy controls and 38 drug-naïve first-episode schizophrenia patients. Patients were treated with 8-week risperidone monotherapy and divided into responder and non-responder groups according to the Remission in Schizophrenia Working Group (RSWG). We utilized partial least squares (PLS) regression to examine the spatial associations between gene expression of subcortical structures from a publicly available transcriptomic dataset and between-group variances of structural covariance. The peripheral DNA methylation (DNAm) status of a gene of interest (GOI), overlapping between genes detected in the PLS and 108 schizophrenia candidate gene loci previously reported, was examined in parallel with MRI scanning. Results In the psychotic symptom dimension, non-responders had a higher baseline structural covariance in the putamen–hippocampus–pallidum–accumbens pathway compared with responders. For disorganized symptoms, significant differences in baseline structural covariant connections were found in the putamen–hippocampus–pallidum–thalamus circuit between the two subgroups. The imaging variances related to psychotic symptom response were spatially related to the expression of genes enriched in neurobiological processes and dopaminergic pathways. The DNAm of GOI demonstrated significant associations with patients’ improvement of psychotic symptoms. Conclusion Baseline subcortical structural covariance and peripheral DNAm may relate to antipsychotic treatment response. Phenotypic variations in subcortical connectome related to psychotic symptom response may be transcriptomically and epigenetically underlaid. This study defines a roadmap for future studies investigating multimodal imaging epigenetic biomarkers for treatment response in schizophrenia.

Substantial clinical heterogeneity and comorbidity inherent amongst mental disorders limit the identification of neuroimaging biomarkers that can reliably track clinical symptoms. Strategies that enable generation of meaningful and replicable neurobiological markers at the individual level will push the field of neuropsychiatry forward in developing efficacious personalized treatment. The current study included 142 adult patients with a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar (BP), or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and 67 patient ratings across four behavioral measures. Using functional connectivity derived from a personalized fMRI approach, we identified several candidate imaging markers related to dimensional phenotypes across disorders, assessed the internal and external generalizability of these markers, and compared the probability of replicating findings across datasets using individual and group-averaged defined functional regions. We identified subject-specific connections related to three different clinical domains (attention deficit, appetite-energy, psychosis-positive) in a discovery dataset. Importantly, these connectivity biomarkers were robust and were reproduced in an independent validation dataset. For markers related to neurovegetative symptoms (attention deficit, appetite-energy symptoms), the brain connections involved showed similar connectivity patterns across the different diagnoses. However, psychosis-positive symptoms were associated with connections of varying strength across disorders. Finally, we found that markers for symptom domains were replicable for individually-specified connections, but not for group template-derived connections. Our personalized strategies allowed us to identify meaningful and generalizable imaging markers for symptom domains in patients who exhibit high levels of heterogeneity. These biomarkers may shed new light on the connectivity underpinnings of psychiatric symptoms and lead to personalized interventions.

Valvular heart diseases (VHD) have a high incidence in the elderly, and the morbidity and fatality rate of VHD increase gradually. To save the lives of patients at the end stage of VHD, valve replacement is the most effective treatment. Owning to the good hydrodynamic performance and application of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), bioprosthetic heart valves (BHVs) fabricated from glutaraldehyde crosslinked porcine or bovine pericardium have become a popular choice for patients. However, BHVs fail within 10–15 years of implantation due to the structural degradation and calcification which are greatly attributed to glutaraldehyde crosslinking. In this work, 2-isocyanatoethyl methacrylate (ICM) was used as crosslinking agent for the first time to stabilize porcine pericardium by radical polymerization crosslinking. The ICM-crosslinked pericardium (PICM10-PP) was demonstrated to exhibit better cytocompatibility, mechanical property, and milder immune responses compared with glutaraldehyde crosslinked porcine pericardium (GA-PP). In addition, the PICM10-PP was less calcific than GA-PP after 30 and 90 days of subcutaneous implantation. Following the guidance of ISO5840-3, the hydrodynamic performance and durability of PICM10-PP were evaluated and demonstrated to conform the requirements for BHVs. These results indicate that ICM is a potential alternative of glutaraldehyde in crosslinking BHVs.

Bioprosthetic heart valves (BHVs) are widely used to treat valvular disease. Almost all commercial BHVs are treated with glutaraldehyde (Glut). However, Glut-treated BHVs still have problems such as cytotoxicity, thrombosis, and calcification. This study focused on enhancing the performance of BHVs by cross-linking porcine pericardium (PP) with sodium lignosulfonate (SLS). Compared with Glut-PP, Human umbilical vein endothelial cells proliferation in the SLS-PP increased 13.3-fold at day 5, the adhesion of serum albumin and fibrinogen in SLS-PP decreased by 5.4-fold and 4.3-fold, and the calcification of SLS-PP decreased from 112.64 mu g/mg to 13.49 mu g/mg. SLS cross-linked PP(SLS-PP) was similar to Glut cross-linked PP(Glut-PP) in mechanical and enzymatic degradation resistance. In conclusion, SLS is a potential alternative for glutaraldehyde as a new cross-linker for BHVs.

With the development of diagnostic techniques, the incidence of bioprosthetic heart valve thrombosis (BHVT) is found to be seriously underestimated. Developing bioprosthetic heart valves (BHVs) that have good hemocompatibility without sacrificing other properties such as hydrodynamics and durability will be an effective strategy to alleviate BHVT. In this study, we developed a PEGylation method by co-crosslinking and subsequent radical polymerization. 2-amino-4-pentenoic acid was used to introduce carbon-carbon double bonds for glutaraldehyde crosslinked pericardia. Then poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) was immobilized on pericardia by radical polymerization. A comprehensive evaluation of the modified pericardia was performed including structural characterization, hemocompatibility, cytocompatibility, mechanical properties, component stability, hydrodynamic performance and durability of the BHVs. The modified pericardia significantly reduced platelet adhesion by more than 75% compared with traditional glutaraldehyde crosslinked pericardia. Cell viability in the modified pericardia group was nearly 5-fold higher than that in glutaraldehyde crosslinked pericardia. The hydrodynamic performance met the requirements of ISO 5840-3 under physiological aortic valve conditions and its durability was proved after 200 million cycles of accelerated fatigue test. In conclusion, PEGDA modified pericardia exhibited improved antithrombogenicity and cytocompatibility properties compared with glutaraldehyde crosslinked pericardia. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Bioprosthetic valve (BHV) implantation requires BHV to be structurally stable as well as biocompatible in vivo. Traditional glutaraldehyde crosslinking method prepared BHV suffers from severe cytotoxicity, thrombosis, and calcification. BHV modification methods that have simultaneously improved structural stability and biocompatibility were rarely reported. Here, we proposed a PEGylation method for BHV based on co-crosslinking strategy that could improve its structural stability as well as hemocompatibility. We take the advantage of high efficiency of glutaraldehyde crosslinking and demonstrate the feasibility and superiority of the PEGylated strategy, offering a promising option in glutaraldehyde-based BHV fabrication in the future.

With the development trend of integrated energy system (IES) , the connection of energy storage (ES) and the response of multiple various types of loads (TOLs) have enhanced the diversity of production scheduling (PSC) in IES. The IES must have the function of acquiring and solving massive amounts of information. The IES can flexibly use the self-adjusting capabilities of various loads and ES technologies and consider the interaction of source-load-storage (SLS) to improve economic benefits (EBs). Based on the IES , create a physical model of electromagnetic ES; for transformable loads, create a physical model of load request-response. Create an IES entity model that takes into account electron thermalization. The objective function is the fixed cost (OF) of the system and considers the energy balance tube bundle and the machine equipment bundle, which is obtained by using the CPLEX solver. Through the simulation, it can be concluded that the rationality of the IES has been improved after comprehensively considering the ES and the response of TOLs.

Abstract Background Neuroimaging studies on major depressive disorder (MDD) have identified an extensive range of brain structural abnormalities, but the exact neural mechanisms associated with MDD remain elusive. Most previous studies were performed with voxel- or surface-based morphometry which were univariate methods without considering spatial information across voxels/vertices. Methods Brain morphology was investigated using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and source-based morphometry (SBM) in 1082 MDD patients and 990 healthy controls (HCs) from the REST-meta-MDD Consortium. We first examined group differences in regional grey matter (GM) volumes and structural covariance networks between patients and HCs. We then compared first-episode, drug-naïve (FEDN) patients, and recurrent patients. Additionally, we assessed the effects of symptom severity and illness duration on brain alterations. Results VBM showed decreased GM volume in various regions in MDD patients including the superior temporal cortex, anterior and middle cingulate cortex, inferior frontal cortex, and precuneus. SBM returned differences only in the prefrontal network. Comparisons between FEDN and recurrent MDD patients showed no significant differences by VBM, but SBM showed greater decreases in prefrontal, basal ganglia, visual, and cerebellar networks in the recurrent group. Moreover, depression severity was associated with volumes in the inferior frontal gyrus and precuneus, as well as the prefrontal network. Conclusions Simultaneous application of VBM and SBM methods revealed brain alterations in MDD patients and specified differences between recurrent and FEDN patients, which tentatively provide an effective multivariate method to identify potential neurobiological markers for depression.