Modulating visuomotor adaptation in young healthy adults: Effects of reward and punishment

Recent human motor adaptation/learning studies revealed that punishment accelerates acquisition of motor memory while reward enhances consolidation of motor memory. This study tested the robustness and a possible cause for this potential dissociation. During learning to adapt to an abrupt visual rotation in moving to a visual target, young healthy participants were provided with performance-based monetary reward or punishment. By manipulating the probability of reward or punishment distribution and controlling visual feedback of the cursor while moving to a target, the present study demonstrated that punishment induced faster adaptation than reward in both continuous and non-continuous visual feedback contexts when punishment and reward were distributed in all adaptation trials. However, only reward combined with continuous visual feedback of the cursor resulted in offline consolidation improvement. In contrast, offline consolidation of punishment-induced adaptation memory was inhibited in the continuous visual feedback context. A word-list learning task immediately after the adaptation training reduced this inhibition of punishment-induced adaptation memory, while having no influence on the consolidation of reward-induced adaptation memory. These findings suggest that punishment, compared to reward, induced more efficient explicit process in the adaptation phase, but stronger explicit memory suppressed the consolidation of the punishment-induced motor memory

The distribution characteristics of heavy metal contamination in the central segment of Xiaonan River, Shenyang

The middle segment of Xiaonan River, which feeds into the Puhe River, was chosen for research. Samples including its water, river bottom mud, river bank soil, and nearby vegetation were collected from six monitoring sites. These samples were analyzed by ICP-OES to determine heavy metal distribution. The results showed that main contamination of heavy metals in the Xiaonan River are Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn. Notably, Cr and Zn are in high levels, and Cr surpassed the limit of third-grade standard, indicating severe contamination. By using the potential ecological risk index method, Cd showed a high coefficient, severely damaging the surface water and riparian soil. The migration patterns of Cr and Zn were different. Cr tended to accumulate more in riverbank soils, while Zn showed higher concentrations in river bottom mud. Plants of nearby vegetation showed minimal absorption and transfer capabilities for Cd, while Ni transferred most. By applying the ecological risk index, potential pollution sources were inferred to assess each metal's distribution, so to offer a basis from its origin, and to protect the ecological health of the Puhe River Basin

A Missing Key to Understand the Electrical Resonance and the Mechanical Property of Neurons: a Channel-Membrane Interaction Mechanism

The recent study of the interaction between the fatty acyl tails of lipids and the K+ channel establishes the connection between flexoelectricity and the ion channel's dynamics, named Channel-Membrane Interaction (CMI), that may solve the electrical resonance in neurons

Contribution of recycled moisture to local precipitation in the inland Heihe River Basin

Recycled moisture contributed by continental evaporation and transpiration plays an important role in regulating the hydrological processes and atmospheric humidity budget in arid inland river basins. However, knowledge of moisture recycling within many large inland basins and the factors that control moisture recycling is generally lacking. Based on a three-component isotopic mixing model, we assessed the characteristics of moisture recycling in China’s semi-arid Heihe River Basin. During the active growing season, almost half of the precipitation in the upper reaches was provided by local moisture recycling, and the main contribution came from transpiration. In the middle reaches, almost half of the precipitation in the artificial oasis and the desert-oasis ecotone was also provided by local moisture recycling, and the transpiration fraction (fTr) and evaporation fraction (fEv) of the artificial oasis differed from those of the desert-oasis ecotone. In the lower reaches, less than 25% of the precipitation was provided by local moisture recycling. Mean fTr values were relatively low in the Gobi (15.0%) in the middle reaches and in the riparian forest at Ejina (25.6%) in the lower reaches. The positive correlations between fTr and both precipitation and relative humidity suggest that higher precipitation and relative humidity promote transpiration fraction, whereas higher vapor pressure deficit reduces transpiration fraction. The positive correlation between fEv and temperature and vapor pressure deficit, and the negative correlation between fEv and relative humidity indicate that higher temperature and vapor pressure deficit promotes evaporation fraction, whereas higher relative humidity reduces the evaporation fraction. Our results show that contributions of recycled moisture (especially transpiration) to local precipitation play an important role in regional water resource redistribution in the arid and semi-arid region of northwestern China

Water Environment Assessment of Xin’an River Basin in China Based on DPSIR and Entropy Weight–TOPSIS Models

Water environment evaluation is the basis of water resource planning and sustainable utilization. As a successful case of the coordinated progress of ecological protection and economic development, the Xin’an River Basin is a model for exploring the green development model. However, there are still some problems in the synergistic cooperation between the two provinces. Exploring the differences within the basin is a key entry point for solving the dilemma of synergistic governance in the Xin’an River Basin, optimizing the allocation of resources, and improving the overall effectiveness of governance. Based on the DPSIR model, 21 water environment–related indicators were selected, and the entropy weight–TOPSIS method and gray correlation model were used to evaluate the temporal and spatial status of water resources in each county of the Xin’an River Basin. The results show that (1) The relative proximity of the water environment in Xin’an River Basin fluctuated in “M” shape during the ten years of the study period, and the relative proximity reached the optimal solution of 0.576 in 2020. (2) From the five subsystems, the state layer and the corresponding layer are the most important factors influencing the overall water environment of the Xin’an River Basin. In the future, it is intended to improve the departmental collaboration mechanism. (3) The mean values of relative proximity in Qimen County, Jiande City, and Chun’an County during the study period were 0.448, 0.445, and 0.439, respectively, and the three areas reached a moderate level. The water environment in Huizhou District and Jixi County, on the other hand, is relatively poor, and the mean values of proximity are 0.337 and 0.371, respectively, at the alert level. The poor effect of synergistic development requires a multi–factor exploration of reasonable ecological compensation standards. We give relevant suggestions for this situation

Geometric morphometric analysis of Protoconites minor from the Cambrian (Terreneuvian) Yanjiahe Formation in Three Gorges, South China

The Ediacaran to Cambrian transition is a critical interval of time during which major evolutionary changes occurred. Recently, abundant Protoconites minor have been recovered from the silty shales of the lower Cambrian Yanjiahe Formation (Terreneuvian, Fortunian - Stage 2) in the Three Gorges area of South China. These fossils represent an important ecological diversification of macroscopic organisms at the onset of the Cambrian. Protoconites minor is a probable cnidarian-grade organism preserved by carbon compression. Herein, geometric morphometric analyses are applied to crack out specimens of P. minor to reveal any cryptic morphological details that may have implications for their morphological diversity, ontogenetic processes, and taxonomic identification. These statistical analyses reveal a strong relationship between size and shape, which indicates that the overall shape of P. minor was mainly controlled by allometric growth. The smaller specimens are generally wider at the anterior and more commonly have straight-sides. Larger individuals tend to be narrower at the anterior, with bending more common. Our analyses demonstrate that there are transitional forms between larger, strongly bent specimens and smaller, straight specimens, suggesting that the assemblage likely consists of a single species

Active corrosion protection by a smart coating based on a MgAl-layered double hydroxide on a cerium-modified plasma electrolytic oxidation coating on Mg alloy AZ31

A composite coating was produced via (i) plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) with Ce salt sealing, on which layered double hydroxides (LDHs) were deposited via a hydrothermal treatment, and (ii) then modified by phytic acid (PA) via an ion-exchange reaction. The final coating (characterized using XRD, XPS, FT-IR, SEM, EDS and GDOES) consisted of LDHs/Mg(OH)/CeO/Ce(OH) with a non-uniform Ce distribution. The corrosion protection and self-healing ability were investigated using polarization curves, EIS, immersion tests and SVET. The composite coating modified with PA showed the most superior corrosion protection and self-healing ability, attributed to the synergistic effect between Ce species and phosphate

Protection of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells against Oxidative Stress by MicroRNA-210

Oxidative stress induces endothelial cell apoptosis and promotes atherosclerosis development. MicroRNA-210 (miR-210) is linked with apoptosis in different cell types. This study aimed to investigate the role of miR-210 in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) under oxidative stress and to determine the underlying mechanism. HUVECs were treated with different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and cell viability was evaluated using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay and ATP assay. To evaluate the role of miR-210 in H2O2-mediated apoptosis, gain-and-loss-of-function approaches were used, and the effects on apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) level were assayed using flow cytometry. Moreover, miR-210 expression was detected by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and expression of the following apoptosis-related genes was assessed by qRT-PCR and Western blot at the RNA and protein level, respectively: caspase-8-associated protein 2 (CASP8AP2), caspase-8, and caspase-3. The results showed that H2O2 induced apoptosis in HUVECs in a dose-dependent manner and increased miR-210 expression. Overexpression of miR-210 inhibited apoptosis and reduced ROS level in HUVECs treated with H2O2. Furthermore, miR-210 downregulated CASP8AP2 and related downstream caspases at protein level. Thus, under oxidative stress, miR-210 has a prosurvival and antiapoptotic effect on HUVECs by reducing ROS generation and downregulating the CASP8AP2 pathway