Publications by authors named "Si Qi"

Agitation is one of the core symptoms of schizophrenia. The occurrence of agitation may be related to orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction. However, due to methodological heterogeneity, the relationship between agitation and orbitofrontal cortex subregions remains unclear.

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Two mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades with MPK4 and MPK3/MPK6 as the bottommost kinases are key to plant growth/development and immune signaling. Disruption of the MPK4 cascade leads to severe dwarfism and autoimmunity, complicating the study of MPK4 in plant growth/development and immunity. In this study, we successfully rescued the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mpk4 mutant using a chemical-sensitized MPK4 variant, MPK4YG, creating a conditional activity-null mpk4 mutant named MPK4SR (genotype: PMPK4:MPK4YG mpk4) that could be used to examine the functions of MPK4 in plant growth/development and immunity.

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  • - The article discusses heat stress (HS) in mammals, which disrupts their thermal balance and negatively impacts the development of oocytes and embryos, resulting in economic losses in the livestock industry.
  • - It outlines the mechanisms by which HS affects embryonic development, including the generation of reactive oxygen species, endocrine disruption, and molecular changes.
  • - The article also explores strategies to mitigate HS effects, such as using antioxidants, enhancing mitochondrial function, gene editing, and improving the animals' rearing environment.
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  • The study compares the structural connectivity patterns of the limbic system between people with schizophrenia (SCZ) and psychotic bipolar disorder (PBD), highlighting clinical challenges in differentiating the two disorders.
  • Using sMRI data from over 400 participants, researchers analyzed various brain regions and their connectivity, finding specific disruptions linked to psychiatric symptoms.
  • Results showed that SCZ patients had more significant connectivity disruptions than those with PBD, particularly in the hippocampus and thalamus, suggesting potential markers for distinguishing these two disorders.
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Background: It has been proposed that inflammation plays a role in the development of sarcopenia. This study aimed to investigate the links of complete blood cell count (CBC) parameters and CBC-derived inflammatory indicators with sarcopenia and mortality.

Methods: Data pertaining to sarcopenia were extracted from the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), and mortality events were ascertained through the National Death Index up to December 31, 2019.

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Background: The basal ganglia are important structures for the release of dopamine in the limbic circuits of the midbrain, and the striatum and globus pallidus are the major nuclei of the basal ganglia, and the dysfunction of these regions has been the basis of many models that have attempted to explain the underlying mechanisms of schizophrenia symptoms. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in the volume of the striatum subregion and globus pallidus in three different stages of schizophrenia, and to analyze whether these volume changes were related to antipsychotic drugs and schizophrenia symptoms.

Methods: In this study, we investigated the volume of the striatum and globus pallidus in patients with schizophrenia at three different stages.

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  • The study investigates serum levels of microRNA-320d in patients with schizophrenia, finding that it is downregulated in those with the disorder compared to healthy controls.
  • The researchers collected serum samples from 57 first-episode schizophrenia patients and 62 healthy individuals, assessing cognitive function using a specific battery of tests (MCCB).
  • Results indicate that serum miR-320d can serve as a potential diagnostic biomarker for schizophrenia, showing a significant relationship with cognitive scores and involvement in cell adhesion pathways.
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Twin support vector machine (TSVM) is a practical machine learning algorithm, whereas traditional TSVM can be limited for data with outliers or noises. To address this problem, we propose a novel TSVM with the symmetric LINEX loss function (SLTSVM) for robust classification. There are several advantages of our method: (1) The performance of the proposed SLTSVM for data with outliers or noise can be improved by using the symmetric LINEX loss function.

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Objective: There is considerable debate as to whether the continuum of major psychiatric disorders exists and to what extent the boundaries extend. Converging evidence suggests that alterations in hippocampal volume are a common sign in psychiatric disorders; however, there is still no consensus on the nature and extent of hippocampal atrophy in schizophrenia (SZ), major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). The aim of this study was to verify the continuum of SZ - BD - MDD at the level of hippocampal subfield volume and to compare the volume differences in hippocampal subfields in the continuum.

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Building ecological networks is the fundamental basis of depicting how species in communities interact, but sampling complex interaction networks is extremely labour intensive. Recently, indirect ecological information has been applied to build interaction networks. Here we propose to extend the source of indirect ecological information, and applied regional ecological knowledge to build local interaction networks.

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Background: There is limited evidence on the efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in adolescents with mental illness. The present study reported outcomes of adolescents with mental illness treated with ECT aimed at providing evidence for large-scale feasibility.

Objectives: The primary objective of this trial was to examine the differences in demographic and clinical data between responders and non-responders.

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Pear fruits have been reported to contain abundant bioactive compounds and exhibit antidiabetic activity. In this study, Pingguoli pear ( cv.'Pingguoli') fermentation broth was sequentially extracted by five solvents with increasing polarity (petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and water) to evaluate its antioxidant and hypothermic activities, and then the main compounds of the fraction with the highest activity were assessed, which might be responsible for such activities.

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Introduction: Midshaft clavicular fractures are common amongst young adults. Conservative or surgical treatment for definitive fracture management has been widely debate, both with their pros and cons. Previous meta-analyses compared the clinical outcomes between conservative and surgical treatment options of midshaft clavicular fractures but failed to elucidate any difference in functional improvement.

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Leaf senescence is a developmentally programmed cell death process that is influenced by a variety of endogenous signals and environmental factors. Here, we report that MPK3 and MPK6, two Arabidopsis mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs or MPKs), and their two upstream MAPK kinases (MAPKKs or MKKs), MKK4 and MKK5, are key regulators of leaf senescence. Weak induction of constitutively active MAPKKs driven by steroid-inducible promoter, which activates endogenous MPK3 and MPK6, induces leaf senescence.

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Land use regression (LUR) models have been widely used in epidemiological studies and risk assessments related to air pollution. Although efforts have been made to improve the performance of LUR models so that they capture the spatial heterogeneity of fine particulate matter (PM) in high-density cities, few studies have revealed the vertical differences in PM exposure. This study proposes a three-dimensional LUR (3-D LUR) assessment framework for PM exposure that combines a high-resolution LUR model with a vertical PM variation model to investigate the results of horizontal and vertical mobile PM monitoring campaigns.

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This study explored the molecular mechanism underlying the effects of dexamethasone (DEX, 1 µM) on glucose transporters (GLUT) in JEG-3 human placental choriocarcinoma cells. JEG-3 cells were treated with DEX, an expression plasmid encoding human glucocorticoid receptor α (GRα), pcDNA3.1-GRα, GRα short interference (si) RNA, LY294002, xanthine oxidase (XO)/hypoxanthine (HX), rapamycin, insulin-like growth factor (IGF) 1, N-acetylcysteine (NAC) or phosphatidic acid (PA), and cell proliferation, apoptosis, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) content, human placental lactogen (hPL) content, glucose uptake, reactive oxygen species levels and signalling pathway modulation were evaluated.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study examines the role of the glucose-6-phosphate/phosphate translocator (OsGPT1) in rice anther development and pollen fertility, showing its essential function in the accumulation of starch granules in pollen grains.
  • - Mutations in OsGPT1 lead to sterile pollen due to issues like impaired tapetum degeneration and defective pollen wall structures, indicating its critical sporophytic role in supporting pollen development.
  • - The findings contrast with the previously studied AtGPT1 in Arabidopsis, which has a different function in lipid accumulation, suggesting that OsGPT1 and AtGPT1 have evolved distinct roles after the split between monocots and dicots.
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The purpose of this study was to explore individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors that may influence the physical activity of adolescents (ages 10-14) in Pakistani schools. A set of questionnaires that included individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors and PA behavior was completed by the 618 students selected from Pakistani schools. Stepwise forward regression model was applied to check the possible effects of multilevel variables on physical activity and to extract the stronger predictors.

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  • Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are natural compounds found in about 3% of flowering plants, known for their harmful effects on the liver and potential to cause cancer.
  • The European Medicines Agency has set a strict limit on the acceptable intake of PAs from herbal products to minimize health risks.
  • This paper aims to systematically review existing literature on the content of PAs in herbal medicines and foods, helping to assess safety and control measures for these substances, especially in Chinese herbal medicine.
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Acute myocardial infarction(AMI) is still the leading cause of death worldwide. At present, the treatment of AMI is mainly to restore the cardiac blood supply through myocardial reperfusion. With the widespread use of coronary artery bypass grafting and percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI), myocardial reperfusion injury is a major clinical problem.

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Alternative splicing and duplication provide the possibility of functional divergence of MADS-box genes. Compared with its Arabidopsis counterpart PI gene, Zmm16 in maize recruits a new role in carpel abortion and floral asymmetry, whereas the other two duplicated genes, Zmm18/29, have not yet been attributed to any function in flower development as a typical B class gene does. Here, alternatively spliced transcripts of three PI genes were analyzed, among which we described the candidate functional isoforms and analyzed the potential effects of alternative splicing (AS) on protein-protein interactions as well, then their phylogenetic relationships with orthologs in typical grasses were further analyzed.

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Disordered collagen production by fibroblasts in response to tissue injury contributes to pulmonary fibrosis (PF). Therefore, elimination of collagen deposition has becoming a potential target in PF treatment which despite standard anti-fibrosis regiment still remains challenge. Curcumin and curcumol are regarded as the main active components extraction from the rhizomes of Curcuma zedoaria, which is widely used for inhibition the proliferation of multiple cells.

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Classifying point clouds obtained from mobile laser scanning of road environments is a fundamental yet challenging problem for road asset management and unmanned vehicle navigation. Deep learning networks need no prior knowledge to classify multiple objects, but often generate a certain amount of false predictions. However, traditional clustering methods often involve leveraging a priori knowledge, but may lack generalisability compared to deep learning networks.

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Background: Chronic prostatitis (CP) is an inflammation of the prostate gland that seriously affects the quality of life of patients. The existing evidence of antibiotics and α-blockers for the treatment of CP is limited.

Objectives: This review evaluated the effectiveness and safety of Qian Lie An Suppository (Prostant) in treating CP.

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Dexamethasone (DEX) could induce low birth weight of infant, and low birth weight has close associations with glucocorticoid levels, insulin resistance, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome in adulthood. This study was designed to reveal the action mechanisms of DEX on the birth weight of infant.Using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), trophoblast cells of human placenta were identified and the optimum treatment time of DEX were determined.

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