Partitioning heritability analyses unveil the genetic architecture of human brain multidimensional functional connectivity patterns

Resting‐state functional connectivity profiles have been increasingly shown to be important endophenotypes that are tightly linked to human cognitive functions and psychiatric diseases, yet the genetic architecture of this multidimensional trait is barely understood. Using a unique sample of 1,704 unrelated, young and healthy Chinese Han individuals, we revealed a significant heritability of functional connectivity patterns in the whole brain and several subnetworks. We further proposed a partitioned heritability analysis for multidimensional functional connectivity patterns, which revealed the common and unique enrichment patterns of the genetic contributions to brain connectivity patterns for several gene sets linked to brain functions, including the genes expressed preferentially in the central nervous system and those associated with intelligence, educational attainment, attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia. These results for the first time reveal the genetic architecture of multidimensional brain connectivity patterns across different networks and advance our understanding of the complex relationship between gene sets, neural networks, and behaviors.     

Mycardial ischemia and determined chaos in integral homeostatic regulation

This study was devoted to the problem of homeostatic stability loss caused by myocardial ischemia, induced by stress testing. It involved 55 patients with different variants of coronary heart disease and 15 practically healthy volunteers as controls. Routine bicycle ergometry and nonstop monitoring of the cardiac-interval duration were conducted simultaneously. The systemic homeokinetic state was evaluated by means of cardiac rhythm entropy dynamics analysis in a multidimensional space of existence. Determined chaos was shown to be the main property of these dynamics in all cases. The original method of measuring the cardiac rhythm entropy chaotisity level is presented. It is suggested that the newly revealed phenomenon of a sharp rise in the cardiac entropy trajectory chaotisity level and followed by a decrease, which happens in the multidimensional phase space, may be used as an additional criterion of myocardial ischemia development for the verification of dubious stress-testing results.     

基于多维项目反应理论的学龄前儿童饮食行为量表的再评价

目的 采用多维项目反应理论(MIRT)理论对“学龄前儿童饮食行为量表”进行进一步的条目评估,探索MIRT理论在医学量表编制中的可行性和有效性,编制出更加完善精简的“学龄前儿童饮食行为量表”,为我国儿童饮食行为评价和相关研究提供基本工具。方法 广泛查阅国内外相关文献,2017年6月以西安市城、郊3～6岁儿童“学龄前儿童饮食行为量表”测试结果为基础,采用MIRT下的条目区分度、难度和猜测系数对各条目进行评价和筛选,采用Cronbach’s α系数、分半信度系数、重测信度系数以及因子分析等对修订后的量表的信度、效度、反应度进行再检验,并与原量表进行对比。结果 依据MIRT下的条目区分度、难度和维度载荷共删除3个条目,并调整了1个条目的维度归属。修订的量表同质信度Cronbach’s α系数为0.94,Guttman分半信度系数为0.81,重测信度系数为0.73,探索性因子分析显示累积方差贡献率为59.04%,验证性因子分析显示范拟合指数(NFI)=0.86,非范拟合指数(NNFI)=0.92,比较拟合指数(CFI)＝0.93,均方根残差(RMSR)=0.04。不同体重分集在过饱响应、食物响应、挑食、不良进食习惯维度得分上差异均有统计学意义(P<0.05)。修订后量表的信度、效度和区分度各类指标中大部分都优于原量表。结论 MIRT理论下的条目筛选方法可进一步调高量表的信度和效度,使量表更加精简,新修订的学龄前儿童饮食行为量表更适合于儿童饮食行为问题的评估和研究。     

Single-Nucleus and In Situ RNA–Sequencing Reveal Cell Topographies in the Human Pancreas

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基于THE和QS评价指标的医学学科排名体系构建

目的：分析医学学科国际排名的影响因素，为我国医学学科发展提供参考。方法：在THE、QS排名指标的基础上，构建新的医学学科排名指标体系，运用统计学软件SPSS 24.0分析100所高水平医学大学的类型、特征，揭示不同类型大学的优势、劣势。结果：教育教学是各类型大学学科发展核心，亚洲大学国际化水平偏低，科研论文在THE和QS排名中作用有限，国内大学享有较好的国际声誉。结论：在我国医学学科建设中，应注重教学品质，重视高质量科研成果的产出，加快国际交流与合作、继续提升国际声誉。     

A random set approach to confidence regions with applications to the effective dose with combinations of agents

The effective dose (ED) is the pharmaceutical dosage required to produce a therapeutic response in a fixed proportion of the patients. When only one drug is considered, the problem is a univariate one and has been well‐studied. However, in the multidimensional setting, that is, in the presence of combinations of agents, estimation of the ED becomes more difficult. This study is focused on the plug‐in logistic regression estimator of the multidimensional ED. We discuss consistency of such estimators and focus on the problem of simultaneous confidence regions. We develop a bootstrap algorithm to estimate confidence regions for the multidimensional ED. Through simulation, we show that the proposed method gives 95% confidence regions, which have better empirical coverage than the previous method for moderate to large sample sizes. The novel approach is illustrated on a cytotoxicity study on the effect of two toxins in the leukemia cell line HL‐60 and a decompression sickness study of the effects of the duration and depth of the dive. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Validity of the multidimensional fatigue symptom inventory-short form in an African-American community-based sample

Objectives. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory-Short Form (MFSI-SF) in a community-based sample of African-Americans.

Design. A sample of 340 African-Americans (116 men, 224 women) ranging in age from 18–81 years were recruited from the community (e.g., churches, health fairs, and beauty salons). Participants completed a brief demographic survey, the MFSI-SF and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule.

Results. The structural validity of the MFSI-SF for a community-based sample of African-Americans was not supported. The five dimensions of fatigue (General, Emotional, Physical, Mental, Vigor) found for Whites in prior research were not found for African-Americans in this study. Instead, fatigue, while multidimensional for African-Americans, was best represented by a unique four-four profile in which general and emotional fatigue are collapsed into a single dimension and physical fatigue, mental fatigue, and vigor are relatively distinct. Hence, in the absence of modifications, the MFSI-SF cannot be considered to be structurally invariant across ethnic groups. A modified four-factor version of the MFSI-SF exhibited excellent internal consistency reliability and evidence supports its convergent validity. Using the modified four-factor version, gender, and age were not meaningfully associated with MFSI-SF scores.

Conclusion. Future research should further examine whether modifications to the MFSI-SF would, as the findings suggest, improve its validity as a measure of multidimensional fatigue in African-Americans.