Single-Cell Transcriptomics Reveals the Cellular Heterogeneity of Cardiovascular Diseases

“A world in a wild flower, and a bodhi in a leaf,” small cells contain huge secrets. The vasculature is composed of many multifunctional cell subpopulations, each of which is involved in the occurrence and development of cardiovascular diseases. Single-cell transcriptomics captures the full picture of genes expressed within individual cells, identifies rare or de novo cell subpopulations, analyzes single-cell trajectory and stem cell or progenitor cell lineage conversion, and compares healthy tissue and disease-related tissue at single-cell resolution. Single-cell transcriptomics has had a profound effect on the field of cardiovascular research over the past decade, as evidenced by the construction of cardiovascular cell landscape, as well as the clarification of cardiovascular diseases and the mechanism of stem cell or progenitor cell differentiation. The classification and proportion of cell subpopulations in vasculature vary with species, location, genotype, and disease, exhibiting unique gene expression characteristics in organ development, disease progression, and regression. Specific gene markers are expected to be the diagnostic criteria, therapeutic targets, or prognostic indicators of diseases. Therefore, treatment of vascular disease still has lots of potentials to develop. Herein, we summarize the cell clusters and gene expression patterns in normal vasculature and atherosclerosis, aortic aneurysm, and pulmonary hypertension to reveal vascular heterogeneity and new regulatory factors of cardiovascular disease in the use of single-cell transcriptomics and discuss its current limitations and promising clinical potential

Exotic charge density waves and superconductivity on the Kagome Lattice

Recent experiments have identified fascinating electronic orders in kagome materials, including intriguing superconductivity, charge density wave (CDW) and nematicity. In particular, some experimental evidence for AV$_3$Sb$_5$ (A = K,Rb,Cs) and related kagome metals hints at the formation of orbital currents in the charge density wave ordered regime, providing a mechanism for spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking in the absence of local moments. In this work, we comprehensively explore the competitive charge instabilities of the spinless kagome lattice with inter-site Coulomb interactions at the pure-sublattice van Hove filling. From the analysis of the charge susceptibility, we find that, at the nesting vectors, while the onsite charge order is dramatically suppressed, the bond charge orders are substantially enhanced owing to the sublattice texture on the hexagonal Fermi surface. Furthermore, we demonstrate that nearest-neighbor and next nearest-neighbor bonds are characterized by significant intrinsic real and imaginary bond fluctuations, respectively. The 2$\times$2 loop current order is thus favored by the next nearest-neighbor Coulomb repulsion. Interestingly, increasing interactions further leads to a nematic state with intra-cell sublattice density modulation that breaks the $C_6$ rotational symmetry. We further explore superconducting orders descending from onsite and bond charge fluctuations, and discuss our model's implications on the experimental status quo

Perceived physical literacy instruments for sports club coaches: further differentiated validation

BackgroundThe concept of physical literacy (PL) is a theoretical basis for public health. China has proposed PL indicators in its 2030 Sports Power Strategy through systematic administrative measures. Sports club coaches are an important force in promoting public health, and their PL is worthy of attention. The objective is to assess the factor structure of the Perceived PL Instrument (PPLI) in Simplified Chinese for sports club coaches.MethodsThe 18-item PPLI was selected because of its efficiency and effectiveness for physical education teachers. The research team translated the questionnaire (English–Simplified Chinese). The questionnaire was distributed to coaches of school sports clubs and social sports clubs. The factor structure was established by exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).ResultsThe factor structure was a 4-factor, 9-item scale with satisfactory validity. Through exploratory factor analysis, item loadings ranged from 0.70 to 0.75 (Cronbach’s α, 0.83–0.87). Through CFA, factor loadings ranged from 0.78 to 0.86.ConclusionThe PPLI can be used as a reliable and valid instrument to test the PL of sports club coaches

Determination of Uranium, Thorium and Potassium for Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating by ICP-MS and XRF

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating includes the measurement of the equivalent dose and the environmental dose rate. The accurate determination of uranium, thorium and potassium is an important step in ensuring the accurate calculation of the environmental dose rate. The commonly used measurement method is the combination of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry/optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-MS/OES), but the determination of uranium, thorium and potassium can not be done at the same time, and the measurement time is long. In the research, two methods of ICP-MS and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) measuring the three elements were compared. Using ICP-MS analysis, electronic dilution was used to reduce the potassium ions entering the detector, so that potassium ions were in the same order of magnitude as uranium and thorium ions. Thus, the simultaneous analysis of high content potassium and low content uranium and thorium was achieved. The detection limits for uranium, thorium, and potassium were 6.38ng/L, 8.52ng/L, and 926ng/L, respectively. The effects of closed acid dissolution method and open acid dissolution method on the determination of uranium, thorium, and potassium by ICP-MS method were studied. The two dissolution methods dissolved 10 sediment and soil standard substances, and the results of uranium, thorium, and potassium determination were accurate and reliable, with no significant difference in relative error, ranging from 0 to 9.33%. However, the operation of open acid dissolution method was simpler, and the sample processing time (about 9h) was much shorter than the closed acid dissolution method (about 60h). Therefore, open acid dissolution was selected to dissolve the sample in ICP-MS method. By XRF analysis, the relative errors for the determination of uranium, thorium and potassium in standard materials by pressed-powder pellets method were 4.78%−16.2%, 1.20%−13.3% and 0.00%−5.67%, respectively. ICP-MS and XRF were used to determine 20 sediment samples from Bohai Bay, and the relative deviation of the environmental dose rate was less than 6%. XRF has advantages in the measurement of potassium and is more suitable for luminescent samples with high potassium content. The ICP-MS method has a lower detection limit, and higher precision and accuracy for the determination of uranium and thorium. For ultra trace samples, this method provides more accurate measurement results

Strain-induced enhancement of TcT_c in infinite-layer Pr0.8_{0.8}Sr0.2_{0.2}NiO2_2 films

The mechanism of unconventional superconductivity in correlated materials remains a great challenge in condensed matter physics. The recent discovery of superconductivity in infinite-layer nickelates, as analog to high-Tc cuprates, has opened a new route to tackle this challenge. By growing 8 nm Pr0.8Sr0.2NiO2 films on the (LaAlO3)0.3(Sr2AlTaO6)0.7 substrate, we successfully raise the transition temperature Tc from 9 K in the widely studied SrTiO3-substrated nickelates into 15 K. By combining x-ray absorption spectroscopy with the first-principles and many-body simulations, we find a positive correlation between Tc and the pre-edge peak intensity, which can be attributed to the hybridization between Ni and O orbitals induced by the strain. Our result suggests that structural engineering can further enhance unconventional superconductivity, and the charge-transfer property plays a crucial role in the pairing strength.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Single-Cell Transcriptomics Reveals the Cellular Heterogeneity of Cardiovascular Diseases

“A world in a wild flower, and a bodhi in a leaf,” small cells contain huge secrets. The vasculature is composed of many multifunctional cell subpopulations, each of which is involved in the occurrence and development of cardiovascular diseases. Single-cell transcriptomics captures the full picture of genes expressed within individual cells, identifies rare or de novo cell subpopulations, analyzes single-cell trajectory and stem cell or progenitor cell lineage conversion, and compares healthy tissue and disease-related tissue at single-cell resolution. Single-cell transcriptomics has had a profound effect on the field of cardiovascular research over the past decade, as evidenced by the construction of cardiovascular cell landscape, as well as the clarification of cardiovascular diseases and the mechanism of stem cell or progenitor cell differentiation. The classification and proportion of cell subpopulations in vasculature vary with species, location, genotype, and disease, exhibiting unique gene expression characteristics in organ development, disease progression, and regression. Specific gene markers are expected to be the diagnostic criteria, therapeutic targets, or prognostic indicators of diseases. Therefore, treatment of vascular disease still has lots of potentials to develop. Herein, we summarize the cell clusters and gene expression patterns in normal vasculature and atherosclerosis, aortic aneurysm, and pulmonary hypertension to reveal vascular heterogeneity and new regulatory factors of cardiovascular disease in the use of single-cell transcriptomics and discuss its current limitations and promising clinical potential.</jats:p